Data protection and compliance with regulatory requirements are critical in this world of digitalization, with the use of artificial intelligence in various businesses. Companies today need to ensure that they take extra measures to secure their business and ensure compliance, especially when dealing with sensitive information. Salesforce Shield is an advanced suite developed to address these significant requirements. In this blog, we dive deeper into what Salesforce Shield is, how it can help, and how best to deploy it.
What Is Salesforce Shield?
Salesforce Shield provides enhanced features to enhance trust, transparency, compliance, and governance in all core business applications. Specifically developed to address compliance policies, Salesforce Shield provides data privacy and security through robust encryption and monitoring tools. It consists of four main components:
- Event Monitoring
- Field Audit Trail
- Platform Encryption
- Shield Health Check
Four Main Components of Salesforce Shield
Now, let's discuss each of these components in more detail to see why they are important and how they help to strengthen overall security
# Event Monitoring
Event Monitoring provides the broadest level of visibility into your use of Salesforce CRM development services. It monitors and records specific details of user activities such as logins, exports, API usage, and more. Event Monitoring data can be exported to any data visualization and application monitoring tools like Einstein Analytics, Splunk, or FairWarning.
Key benefits include:
- User Adoption: Learn how users engage with the applications.
- Anomaly Detection: Determine activities that may be considered security threats and compromise the system.
- Compliance Reporting: Prepare reports to show that the company complies with set laws and regulations.
# Field Audit Trail
Field Audit Trail extends the conventional field history tracking features of Salesforce Development Company and offers a record of changes made in the data. It has a recorded history of up to 10 years, thus enabling organizations to meet high audit and compliance standards.
Key benefits include:
- Historical Data State: Record the position and value of data at any point in time.
- Scalability: It is based on a big data backend, supporting massive scalability.
- Data Deletion Triggers: Establish the frequency at which data must be deleted to ensure compliance and governance.
# Platform Encryption
Since organizations continue to store PII, sensitive, confidential, or proprietary information in Salesforce, it is crucial to protect this information. Platform encryption improves the security of stored data. It ensures data is still secure even if there is a breach of security. Additional security can be achieved through the management of the encryption keys in organizations using flexible encryption key management options.
Key benefits include:
- AES 256-bit encryption: Offers the highest level of security to the data being transmitted.
- Field-level encryption: Encrypts certain fields that are not included initially by Salesforce.
- At-rest encryption: Protects data in data centers so that unauthorized individuals cannot access it.
- Encryption policy: Ensures a strict encryption policy for all files and attachments shared within the organization.
- Key management: Supports Salesforce-generated keys or customer-managed keys ('bring your own key' - BYOK) option.
# Shield Health Check
Shield Health Check provides a clear understanding of your Salesforce security status and settings. It compares your security level with what is recommended by Salesforce and also globally acceptable. It allows you to control the encryption keys and set access rights to the data so that unauthorized individuals cannot access it.
Key benefits include:
- Security Assessment: Obtain information on your current security status.
- Best Practice Recommendations: Receive recommendations that will improve security with practical measures.
- Risk Mitigation: Minimize risks of security threats by detecting and preventing them before they occur.
Advantages of Salesforce Shield
Salesforce Shield offers many advantages that help scale business operations and protect customer communications. You can enhance data management practices and secure Salesforce with the help of Salesforce Shield. Below are key advantages that illustrate how Salesforce Shield can support these objectives:
# Augmented Data Security
Salesforce Shield provides a strong line of defense, protecting critical business data. Event monitoring, field audit trail, and platform encryption build a strong shield against data intrusions and unauthorized engagements, preserving the integrity of sensitive data.
# Adherence to Regulatory Mandates
In today’s world where data protection statutes are strict, it is crucial to maintain compliance. Salesforce Shield is carefully developed to meet various legal requirements, making it extremely useful for organizations in highly regulated sectors.
# Precision in Data Governance
Salesforce Shield helps organizations monitor and control user activities carefully. Entities can fine-tune access rights, monitor data changes, and partially encrypt certain fields, creating a flexible data management environment that fits the organization’s specific requirements.
Challenges of Salesforce Shield
While Salesforce Shield has numerous benefits, there are also various challenges associated with using the tool. Here are some of them:
# Cost Considerations
The security and compliance features of Salesforce Shield are complex and come with a cost. Companies need to evaluate whether the increase in security and compliance is worth it, especially for those not under strict data protection regulations.
# Complexity in Deployment
Salesforce Shield can be quite complex to install and configure, which can be challenging, especially for administrators who may not be very familiar with the application. The initial deployment may require considerable time and effort, which must be expected when implementing Salesforce Shield in CRM environments.
# Lack of Native Backup and Recovery
While Salesforce Shield strengthens data protection, it does not adequately cover native backup and recovery needs. Some organizations may need to invest more in supplementary tools or methodologies to ensure a comprehensive data backup and protection system is in place.
7 Steps of Implementing Salesforce Shield
Salesforce Shield solutions are not difficult to deploy, but a lot of preparation is needed before one can roll them out. Here are some steps to help you get started:
Step 1: Launch Einstein Data Detect
Start the implementation process by turning on Einstein Data Detect, a tool used to search and flag sensitive information in your Salesforce ecosystem. This tool helps identify where the most sensitive information is located, whether it is personal data or important company data, making security measures more efficient.
Step 2: Data Classification
After identifying sensitive data, proceed to data classification using a data classification tool. This step involves classifying data based on the level of security and determining the level of encryption needed for each category. Classification is important because it determines the measures that will be put in place to protect the data, with higher classification levels receiving more protection.
Step 3: Conduct Impact Analysis
Perform an impact assessment before encrypting data in an organization’s Salesforce environment to determine the effects of encryption. This analysis evaluates the impact that encryption may have on the system and user access. Knowing these impacts will help avoid any negative influences on business operations.
Step 4: Platform Encryption
After the impact analysis, proceed to platform encryption. This step involves key management of the encryption keys and enabling encryption for the fields and files deemed sensitive. Managing encryption keys is crucial since it helps maintain data security and allows only authorized personnel to access the data.
Step 5: Set Up Field Audit Trail
Set up the field audit trail to track all changes made to sensitive fields. This feature is crucial for compliance and security auditing as it provides a record of data changes, who made the changes, what was changed, and when the change was made. A strong field audit trail allows for identifying who is responsible for information leaks and where they started.
Step 6: Create Event Alerts
Implement transaction security policies to track and prevent unauthorized user activities. This step involves setting conditions that trigger actions in the Salesforce customization services, including unauthorized data access or any unusual user activity. These policies are useful in real-time identification and prevention of risks, enhancing the security infrastructure.
Step 7: Event Monitoring Analytics
Use the CRM analytics app to explore event monitoring information. This tool enables you to produce reports and identify patterns of user activity and system usage for security issue indication. Regular review of this data helps detect new security threats before they become major issues.
Conclusion
Salesforce Shield is a highly useful application for any organization requiring extra security and compliance features. By using its components—Platform Encryption, Field Audit Trail, Event Monitoring, and Einstein Data Detect—businesses can ensure data security, compliance with regulations, and a strong security posture. Salesforce Shield deployment and management protect your organization against security risks in the modern world.
To know more about Salesforce Shield, connect with experts at AllianceTek.
Call us at 484-892-5713 or Contact Us today to know more details about the Salesforce Shield: enhancing data protection and regulatory compliance for your business.
