Salesforce is the backbone of many business operations, yet its security often gets overlooked. Despite managing sensitive data and critical processes, 71% of Ops professionals spend less than 10% of their time on Salesforce security, assuming IT has it covered. This lack of ownership exposes your Org to risks—  for example, misconfigurations like excessive permissions or unchecked integrations can lead to unauthorized access, data breaches, and compliance issues.

For CISOs and security leaders, proactive Salesforce risk assessments are essential to identify vulnerabilities and safeguard your environment. In this blog, we’ll guide you through a step-by-step process to conduct an effective risk assessment and regain control of your Salesforce security. Let’s get started.

What is a Salesforce Risk Assessment? 

A Salesforce risk assessment is a structured process to identify, evaluate, and mitigate security vulnerabilities within your Salesforce environment. It focuses on uncovering misconfigurations, excessive permissions, third-party integration risks, and other potential threats that could expose sensitive data or compromise business processes.

Before you conduct a successful Salesforce risk assessment, you must complete 2 things:

1. Identify critical areas for assessment

Identifying critical areas for assessment before conducting a Salesforce risk assessment is essential to ensure focus on the most vulnerable aspects of your environment, making the process both efficient and impactful. Start by prioritizing high-risk areas like:

• User access and permissions: Evaluate user roles, profiles, and permissions to ensure no one has unnecessary or excessive access.
• Data exposure and security settings: Review sharing settings, data visibility, and encryption policies to prevent unauthorized data access.
• Third-party integrations: Third-party tools can cause some very serious vulnerabilities. Analyze connected apps and external APIs for potential vulnerabilities or over-permissive access.
• Monitoring and logging: Ensure that key security events are tracked and alerted for real-time insights into potential threats.

This pre-assessment focus allows for targeted mitigation strategies, enhances compliance readiness, and improves incident response capabilities, all of which are crucial for safeguarding sensitive data and maintaining a secure Salesforce ecosystem.

2. Align the scope

Aligning the scope of your Salesforce risk assessment with your business goals and regulatory requirements ensures the assessment is both relevant and comprehensive, addressing critical areas that impact compliance and operational integrity.

• Compliance requirements: Mapping the assessment scope to compliance frameworks (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA) is vital, as regulatory standards define specific data handling and protection requirements. This alignment helps your organization avoid potential fines, legal issues, and reputational risks by proactively identifying and mitigating compliance gaps. By integrating these requirements into the scope, the assessment becomes a tool for both security enhancement and regulatory adherence, ensuring your Salesforce environment is positioned to meet industry standards.
• Business objectives: The assessment should also reflect your organization’s operational priorities and customer commitments. This means focusing on high-impact areas that, if compromised, could disrupt essential functions, harm customer relationships, or undermine business continuity. By considering business objectives, the scope becomes more strategic, prioritizing areas where security weaknesses could have the most significant effect on performance, revenue, or customer trust. This approach strengthens the value of the risk assessment, connecting security priorities directly to organizational success.

Pro tip: Tools like Sonar can give you a huge advantage by offering visibility into your Salesforce setup. Sonar helps visualize configurations, mapping out user permissions, automations, and integrations, so you can easily identify areas prone to risk. With this clear overview, you’ll have a solid starting point for defining what needs to be included in your assessment.

Steps for Conducting a Salesforce Risk Assessment 

With critical areas identified and the scope aligned to both compliance and business objectives, you’re now ready to move into the core steps of conducting your Salesforce risk assessment. This process will guide you through a structured approach to identifying, evaluating, and addressing security vulnerabilities within your Salesforce environment, ensuring that your system remains secure, compliant, and resilient against evolving threats. Let’s break down each step to streamline and strengthen your assessment.

Step 1: Assemble a Cross-Functional Team

A Salesforce risk assessment can’t be conducted in a vacuum; it requires an all-hands-on-deck approach to ensure every potential risk is uncovered and addressed. Security vulnerabilities within Salesforce often span multiple areas, from system configurations to third-party integrations and compliance requirements. By assembling a cross-functional team with expertise across departments, you bring in critical insights that no single group could achieve alone. 

This collaborative approach unites the specialized knowledge of Salesforce admins, Ops and IT teams, and Security and Compliance teams, creating a holistic view that’s essential for a thorough, effective assessment.

• Salesforce admins: These are your in-house Salesforce experts. They know the system inside and out – understanding configurations, customizations, workflows, and user permissions. Their insights are invaluable for identifying areas where security could be tightened or where misconfigurations might exist.
• Ops and IT teams: These teams are familiar with integrations, how Salesforce connects to other business-critical apps, and the day-to-day processes. Their knowledge helps pinpoint potential vulnerabilities stemming from things like API connections, external integrations, or inefficient workflows.
  
• Security and compliance teams: These experts are well-versed in industry standards, security protocols, and regulatory requirements like GDPR or HIPAA. Their job is to ensure the assessment meets both internal and external security standards and to identify any compliance gaps that could lead to legal exposure or fines.

Bringing these teams together creates a well-rounded view of your Salesforce environment. By collaborating, you ensure every risk– from operational inefficiencies to data security gaps– is assessed. This comprehensive approach ensures you don’t just focus on one aspect but create a 360-degree view of your Salesforce risks.

Step 2:  Review User Access and Permissions

With your cross-functional team assembled, you now have the combined expertise to tackle a critical component of your risk assessment: evaluating who has access to your Salesforce instance and how they’re using it. Access control is one of the most effective ways to mitigate insider threats, prevent unauthorized access, and secure sensitive data. A thorough review of user permissions doesn’t just enhance security; it also strengthens operational integrity by ensuring each user’s access aligns with their specific role.

• Assess permissions: Overly broad permissions are a common security vulnerability in Salesforce environments, often giving users access to more data or functionality than they need. Start by conducting a detailed review of user roles, profiles, and permission sets, identifying any accounts with excessive access privileges that could pose a threat if misused or compromised.
• Apply the  principle of least privilege: Implementing the principle of least privilege—where users are given only the minimum access required to perform their duties—is key to reducing risks across the organization. Limiting access not only minimizes the risk of an insider threat but also helps prevent external attackers from exploiting over-permissioned accounts.
  
• Leverage tools for visibility and control: Tools like Sonar simplify access management by providing clear, real-time visibility into user permissions. Sonar can help you quickly identify over-permissioned accounts, track changes in access levels, and monitor alignment with your security policies. This visibility enables you to stay proactive, adjusting permissions as roles evolve and ensuring that security policies are consistently enforced across your Salesforce environment.

Step 3: Evaluate Data Security and Encryption Measures

Securing your Salesforce environment goes beyond managing user access—it’s equally critical to protect the data itself. While access controls reduce exposure, strong data security and encryption measures ensure that even if data is accessed or intercepted, it remains protected. Evaluating and optimizing your data protection protocols strengthens your organization’s resilience against data breaches, insider threats, and regulatory penalties.

• Review encryption protocols: Regularly assess your encryption standards to confirm that sensitive data is protected both at rest and in transit. Encrypting data at rest protects stored data from unauthorized access, ensuring that it remains secure even if a storage breach occurs. For data in transit, encryption safeguards information as it moves between systems, preventing interception by bad actors. This dual-layered approach ensures comprehensive data protection within and beyond your Salesforce instance.
• Align with compliance standards: It’s essential to ensure that your encryption methods meet both your internal security policies and external compliance requirements, such as GDPR, PCI DSS, or other relevant regulations. Adhering to these standards not only helps you avoid legal and financial repercussions but also reinforces trust with customers and stakeholders. Conducting regular encryption audits will help maintain compliance, identify outdated practices, and confirm that data handling aligns with industry standards and regulatory expectations.
• Utilize tools for enhanced visibility: Tools like Sonar provide insights into encryption configurations and compliance adherence, offering a streamlined way to audit and adjust security protocols as needed. By gaining visibility into your encryption status, you can proactively identify and close potential gaps, ensuring that your data protection measures are always up to date.

Step 4: Analyze Integrations and API Security

After establishing robust encryption and data protection, the next step in your Salesforce risk assessment is to manage the security of third-party integrations and custom APIs. These connections are essential for business operations but can introduce significant vulnerabilities if not monitored and secured effectively. Ensuring strong integration security safeguards your Salesforce environment from data leaks, unauthorized access, and compliance risks.

• Review third-party applications: Applications and APIs connected to Salesforce can inadvertently create security gaps if not configured securely. Regularly review each integration’s permissions, access scopes, and data-sharing settings to ensure they align with your organization’s security policies. Identifying any integration with overly broad permissions or outdated configurations can prevent unauthorized data exposure and reduce overall risk.
• Conduct regular audits: Periodic audits of third-party connections are crucial for maintaining a secure Salesforce environment. These audits help you identify misconfigurations, outdated apps, or weak points in API security before they can be exploited. Proactive audits not only prevent potential data leaks or system vulnerabilities but also help ensure that your Salesforce environment remains compliant with internal policies and regulatory standards.
• Leverage tools for real-time monitoring: Using a tool like Sonar simplifies the monitoring of third-party integrations by providing real-time visibility into how these external apps and APIs interact with Salesforce. Sonar enables you to quickly identify misconfigured connections, track changes, and receive alerts when an app or API does not meet security protocols. This level of insight helps you act swiftly to resolve security issues, preventing incidents such as data breaches or operational downtime.

This proactive approach not only strengthens your Salesforce security posture but also reduces the time and complexity involved in managing third-party connections, allowing your team to stay focused on securing core business functions without the guesswork.

Step 5: Assess Change Management Practices

After securing third-party integrations and APIs, it’s essential to turn your attention to change management within your Salesforce environment. Even minor adjustments—like adding fields or updating automation rules—can inadvertently create security gaps if not properly managed. Effective change management helps safeguard your Salesforce instance by ensuring that each modification is controlled, documented, and reviewed for potential risks.

• Review documentation process: Every change within Salesforce should be fully documented and approved before implementation. By maintaining a clear record of what’s changing and why, you reduce the likelihood of unapproved or unintended adjustments that could create security vulnerabilities. This process not only improves accountability but also provides a valuable reference if issues arise, streamlining troubleshooting and risk management.
• Establish clear audit trails and schedule regular reviews: Clear audit trails allow you to track who made specific changes and when, which is critical for transparency and accountability. Regularly reviewing these change logs can help detect misconfigurations or potential risks introduced through recent adjustments. By auditing these changes, you can catch issues before they escalate into larger security or operational problems, ensuring that all modifications align with your security standards.
• Streamline with Sonar’s change monitoring: Sonar simplifies change management by providing detailed, real-time audit trails of all modifications within your Salesforce environment. With Sonar, you can instantly see who made changes, what was changed, and when, eliminating manual tracking and reducing oversight risks. This real-time visibility helps your team proactively spot misconfigurations or errors, allowing for timely adjustments that keep your Salesforce secure, compliant, and error-free.

Implementing structured change management practices ensures that your environment remains secure and operationally sound, with every modification monitored and aligned to your organization’s Salesforce risk assessment framework.

Step 6: Check Data Retention and Backup Policies

With a strong change management process in place, ensure that your data is being properly managed and protected. This means not only securing data while it’s in use, but also having a clear plan for how long data is kept and how it can be recovered in case of an incident.

• Review data retention policies: It’s essential to regularly check your data retention policies to make sure they comply with regulations and support your business continuity goals. Whether it’s for legal reasons or operational needs, having a clear plan for how long data is stored and when it should be deleted keeps you on track with compliance while avoiding unnecessary data buildup.
• Proper backup systems: Having reliable backup systems is critical for recovering from data loss incidents, whether it’s due to accidental deletion, a system failure, or even a security breach. Regularly testing these backups to ensure they work when needed will give you peace of mind and ensure your business can bounce back quickly if something goes wrong.

Step 7: Monitor and Audit User Activity

Monitoring and auditing user activity is a crucial part of maintaining Salesforce security. Even with strong access controls in place, it’s important to continuously keep an eye on how users interact with the system to detect any suspicious behavior early. This helps catch potential issues before they escalate into bigger security threats.

• Set Up continuous monitoring: Keeping an eye on user behavior in real time helps you spot any unusual patterns, like unauthorized data exports or access attempts outside of normal hours. By flagging these activities as they happen, you can investigate and respond quickly, reducing the risk of a data breach or insider threat.
• Regular audits of access logs: Regularly reviewing access logs ensures that your security measures are actually being followed and helps you identify any unauthorized access or unusual patterns over time. These audits create a clear record of who is accessing what, adding another layer of protection by ensuring that permissions and actions align with your org’s policies.

Step 8: Create a Risk Prioritization Plan

The final step is crucial for maintaining long-term security in Salesforce. Once you’ve identified potential risks, it’s important to prioritize them and create a plan for managing them. This helps you focus on what matters most and ensures that security threats are addressed efficiently.

• Rank risks: Not all risks are equal, so it’s smart to rank them based on how likely they are to happen and how severe the impact could be. Start by addressing the high-impact vulnerabilities first, so you can tackle the most pressing issues before they become bigger problems.
  

• Manage risks: Create a clear plan for how you’ll mitigate, monitor, and control these risks over time. This ensures that once risks are identified, they don’t just sit on a list—they’re actively being managed and reduced, keeping your Salesforce environment secure in the long run.

Sonar makes risk management easier by providing real-time insights into potential risks and changes within your Salesforce environment. With Sonar, teams can quickly identify vulnerabilities and prioritize them based on severity, ensuring that the most critical issues are addressed first. This proactive approach helps prevent risks from escalating, keeping your Salesforce setup secure and well-maintained over time.

Final Thoughts: The Importance of a Salesforce Risk Assessment

Conducting regular Salesforce risk assessments isn’t just a best practice—it’s essential for maintaining a secure, compliant, and resilient environment. A proactive approach to risk management enables you to identify and mitigate security vulnerabilities before they escalate, helping prevent costly incidents and regulatory breaches.

But a successful risk assessment is not the work of a single team. It requires close collaboration among Ops, IT, and Security teams to provide a holistic view of potential risks, ensuring a unified approach to safeguarding your organization’s data and operations.

To streamline this process, tools like Sonar offer the visibility and insights needed to minimize risk and optimize security operations in Salesforce. Get ahead of threats, protect your data, and keep your Salesforce environment secure. Try Sonar free today and empower your team with the tools to stay secure and compliant.