There’s no sugar coating it… data breaches are catastrophic for most businesses. From exposing sensitive customer PII and financial records to putting proprietary business secrets at risk, a single breach can hit hard— impacting compliance, damaging your reputation, and resulting in significant financial consequences.
That’s why encrypting your Salesforce data is no longer a nice-to-have, it’s a must. Whether it’s customer trust, regulatory demands, or simply protecting your business, data encryption is your first line of defense.
But even with encryption activated, without the right tools to monitor and manage your Salesforce environment, you could still be leaving gaps that attackers love to exploit. Of course, security focused teams rely on Salesforce Shield– but even that’s not a comprehensive solution for combatting data security risks.
In this guide, we’ll break down the essentials of Salesforce data encryption, explore its strengths and weaknesses, and show you how pairing encryption with the right monitoring solutions creates a truly secure Salesforce environment.
What Is Salesforce Shield and How Does It Support Data Encryption?
Before we dive into the specifics of securing your Salesforce data, it’s important to understand the tools at your disposal. Salesforce Shield plays a key role in protecting sensitive information with its encryption capabilities, but how does it actually work, and where does it fall short?
Let’s break down what Salesforce Shield is, how it supports data encryption, and why it’s a foundational step (but not the whole story) for a secure Salesforce environment.
Overview of Salesforce Shield
Salesforce Shield is a suite of advanced security and compliance tools designed for Salesforce users to help protect sensitive data, ensure compliance with regulations, and monitor activities within their Salesforce environment. It is an add-on offering that builds upon Salesforce’s native security features, catering to organizations with higher security and compliance requirements.
Salesforce Shield is like your security toolkit for protecting sensitive data in Salesforce, and it’s built around three key components: Platform Encryption, Data Detect, Event Monitoring, and Field Audit Trail.
At the heart of it all is Platform Encryption, which protects your data at rest – think files, records, and attachments. So, even if someone gets their hands on it, the data is unreadable without the proper keys. This is a huge win for meeting compliance requirements like GDPR, HIPAA, or CCPA, where keeping data secure isn’t just smart, it’s mandatory.
While encryption is a big step forward for protecting sensitive info, it’s just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to overall Salesforce security.
Capabilities of Platform Encryption
Platform Encryption works behind the scenes to keep your Salesforce data secure without slowing down your day-to-day operations. It encrypts data right at the database level, so things like records, files, and attachments are protected while they’re stored.
But here’s the best part: it still allows controlled decryption, meaning your business processes can run smoothly. Your team can search, report, and automate workflows without ever hitting a roadblock. It’s like having an invisible lock on your data—one that keeps it safe but opens seamlessly when the right people need access.
This balance ensures security without sacrificing functionality, so your team stays productive while your data stays protected. It’s encryption that works with your business, not against it.
Limitations of Salesforce Shield for Data Encryption
While Salesforce Shield is great for encrypting data, it’s not without its limitations. One major challenge is the lack of visibility into how encryption policies are actually applied across your org. You’re essentially trusting that everything is set up correctly, but without clear insights, it’s tough to be sure.
On top of that, the native monitoring tools are pretty limited when it comes to spotting misconfigurations or detecting suspicious activity. If something goes wrong, like a policy being misapplied or unusual behavior happening, it’s easy for it to slip through the cracks. For teams looking for a truly proactive approach to security, this can leave some big gaps to fill. This underscores the need for visibility tools that proactively monitor integrated systems access, observe anomalies in API consumptions and allow Ops and Security teams stay ahead of potential data leaks.
Best Practices for Implementing a Salesforce Encryption Strategy
Now that we’ve covered where Salesforce Shield shines— and where it falls short— it’s time to focus on how to make encryption work for you. A solid encryption strategy isn’t just about turning on a feature. It’s about making sure your data stays protected, your business processes stay smooth, and you’re ready to spot issues before they become risks.
We’ve compiled a few best practices for implementing a Salesforce encryption strategy that keeps your data secure and your org one step ahead.
1. Understand Your Data and Security Requirements
Before diving into encryption, it’s essential to understand what you’re protecting and why. This step ensures that your encryption efforts are focused where they matter most—on the data that could cause the greatest harm if exposed.
- Conduct a Data Inventory: Begin by identifying and classifying the sensitive data in your Salesforce instance. This might include customer PII, financial records, or health information, depending on your organization’s industry.
- Assess Regulatory Needs: Different industries face different compliance requirements. For example, healthcare organizations must meet HIPAA standards, while businesses handling EU customer data must adhere to GDPR.
- Define Business Impact: Recognize that encrypting certain fields can affect workflows, reporting, and integrations. Prioritize encryption where it has the greatest risk mitigation impact without disrupting business processes.
By taking the time to evaluate your data landscape and compliance requirements, you can build a foundation for an encryption strategy that is both effective and aligned with business objectives.
2. Use Platform Encryption Strategically
Salesforce’s Platform Encryption is a powerful tool, but improper implementation can lead to inefficiencies or even operational disruption. Security leaders must take a strategic approach to ensure encryption enhances security without compromising the functionality of Salesforce.
- Choose Key Fields to Encrypt: Not all data needs encryption. Focus on protecting the most sensitive data, such as fields that store Social Security numbers, payment details, or proprietary business information.
- Understand Functional Limitations: Certain Salesforce features, such as workflows, searches, and reporting, may behave differently with encrypted fields. Plan ahead to ensure operational functionality is preserved.
- Apply Deterministic Encryption When Needed: Some fields, like email addresses or IDs, may require deterministic encryption to enable consistent data matching across applications.
Strategic implementation avoids unnecessary complexity while ensuring maximum protection for your most critical data.
3. Develop a Robust Key Management Strategy
Encryption strength is only as strong as the system managing the encryption keys. Having full control over encryption keys is non-negotiable to meet internal security policies and regulatory requirements.
- Leverage BYOK (Bring Your Own Key): Salesforce Shield offers organizations the ability to use their own encryption keys, providing greater control over data access and compliance.
- Rotate Keys Regularly: Regular key rotation minimizes the risk of exposure in the event of a breach and aligns with best practices for data security.
- Monitor Key Usage: Maintain visibility into how and when keys are used. Unusual activity could signal unauthorized access and requires immediate attention.
By prioritizing robust key management practices, security leaders can ensure their encrypted data remains secure, even in the event of a compromise.
4. Test Thoroughly Before Deployment
When deploying encryption, testing is not optional. Missteps during this phase can lead to operational slowdowns, loss of functionality, or gaps in security. Thorough testing is essential to delivering both security and efficiency.
- Validate Data Access and Functionality: Test how encryption impacts workflows, reports, API calls, and integrations in a sandbox environment. Verify that all essential business functions remain intact.
- Identify Performance Impacts: Encryption can introduce performance challenges, especially in large data environments. Measure any slowdowns and address them proactively before rolling out encryption to production.
Testing ensures encryption integrates smoothly with your operations, giving teams confidence that their processes will continue running without interruption.
5. Integrate Encryption with Data Governance Policies
Encryption should not exist in isolation. It’s critical to align encryption strategies with overarching data governance policies to maintain consistency, compliance, and visibility.
- Align with Access Controls: Encryption is most effective when paired with strict user access controls. Ensure only authorized personnel can access encrypted data.
- Document Encryption Policies: Create clear documentation detailing which fields are encrypted, how encryption is managed, and who oversees its administration.
Integrating encryption with your data governance framework ensures it remains a sustainable part of your organization’s long-term security strategy.
6. Monitor and Audit Encryption Policies
Encryption isn’t a one-and-done solution—it requires continuous oversight to remain effective. Security leaders must prioritize monitoring and auditing to ensure that encryption is keeping pace with evolving risks and organizational changes.
- Use Salesforce Shield Event Monitoring: This tool provides visibility into data access patterns and tracks changes to encrypted fields, enabling proactive identification of suspicious activity.
- Perform Security Audits: Regularly review encryption policies and configurations to ensure they align with current regulatory requirements and business needs.
However, monitoring encrypted data and ensuring compliance can be complex. Tools like Sonar can simplify this process by providing real-time insights into your Salesforce environment. With Sonar, you can go beyond native tools to gain a comprehensive view of how encrypted data is accessed, detect anomalies quickly, and take proactive steps to mitigate risks.
With consistent monitoring, auditing, and the right tools in place, you can catch potential vulnerabilities early and ensure encryption remains a cornerstone of your security strategy.
7. Balance Security with Usability
Encryption can sometimes introduce friction for end users. It’s important for leaders to strike a balance, ensuring robust security without impeding productivity.
- Minimize Impact on User Experience: Collaborate with stakeholders to ensure encryption doesn’t hinder workflows, reporting, or search functionality.
- Educate Teams: Provide training to help users understand how encryption impacts data visibility and functionality, empowering them to work effectively within the new framework.
Balancing security and usability ensures your encryption strategy is embraced across the organization.
8. Secure Third-Party Integrations
Third-party applications are often vital to extending the functionality of Salesforce, but they can also introduce vulnerabilities if not properly managed. Ensuring these integrations adhere to encryption and security policies is essential to safeguarding sensitive data. Integrations that bypass or mishandle encryption can create gaps in your defenses, exposing your organization to compliance risks and potential breaches.
- Encrypt Data Passed to Third-Party Apps: Collaborate with vendors to ensure any data transferred to external systems is encrypted both in transit and at rest. This ensures sensitive information remains protected even outside Salesforce.
- Monitor API Access: Use tools to detect anomalies in how third-party applications interact with encrypted data. Suspicious activity, such as unauthorized requests or unexpected data volumes, should be flagged and addressed immediately.
By securing third-party integrations, you extend your encryption strategy’s effectiveness across your entire tech ecosystem—not just within Salesforce. Tools like Sonar make this process easier by providing comprehensive visibility into API usage, third-party application access, and potential vulnerabilities. With Sonar’s proactive monitoring, you can confidently manage integrations while maintaining consistent encryption and security policies.
A robust approach to integration security ensures your organization remains resilient, even as your tech stack evolves.
9. Plan for Disaster Recovery
Encryption adds complexity to disaster recovery planning, making preparation essential. Security leaders must account for worst-case scenarios to ensure data remains secure and accessible.
- Back Up Encrypted Data Securely: Ensure backups of encrypted data are themselves encrypted and can be restored quickly if needed.
- Prepare for Key Loss Scenarios: Document procedures for recovering access if encryption keys are lost or corrupted.
A robust disaster recovery plan ensures your encryption strategy doesn’t compromise your ability to respond to crises.
Conclusion: Building a Strong Encryption Strategy
Managing encryption at scale presents unique challenges, particularly in complex Salesforce environments with numerous integrations, users, and data flows. Security leaders need more than just encryption—they need tools that provide clarity, consistency, and control. Without the right visibility, even the most robust encryption strategies can leave gaps that introduce risk.
That’s where tools like Sonar make a difference. Sonar enhances your ability to manage encryption by offering:
- Real-Time Monitoring: Keep track of how sensitive, encrypted data is accessed across your Salesforce ecosystem, including third-party integrations and user activity.
- Actionable Insights: Receive clear recommendations to address misconfigurations or potential vulnerabilities in your encryption policies.
- Continuous Risk Detection: Detect and respond to anomalies or threats before they escalate into larger issues.
By complementing Salesforce Shield’s encryption capabilities with advanced oversight, Sonar ensures your encryption policies are consistently applied and effective. Security leaders gain the confidence that their data is protected and compliance requirements are met—all without adding unnecessary complexity to daily operations.
Explore how Sonar can help maximize your Salesforce Shield Investment, reduce operational overhead, and keep your data protected. Learn more about Sonar here.