According to the same report, human error was not the only way employees contributed towards security breaches, infact malicious insiders were the root cause of 7% of data breaches. The report also states that social engineering and phishing attacks that directly targeted employees straightaway accounted for a further 17% of sensitive data breaches.
State of Data protection in the PAST
In 2019, data breaches led to hundreds of millions of users compromising their private data in the biggest security incidents involving companies such as Capital One, Canava and Zynga*. Whether it was the hacker that attacked more than 106 million customer accounts and credit applications of Capital One customers or when Zynga fell victim to a hacking attack that endangered the records of nearly 218 million players worldwide.
Even the previous year, which proved to be a challenging year from all points of view, heavily disrupted the worldwide economy and crippled both large & small businesses. With cybersecurity being the last thing on anyone’s mind, cybercriminals took great advantage of the chaos to increase phishing scams & malware cyberattacks. As a consequence, even 2020 became a stellar year for data breaches and regulatory fines.
An evidential study** revealed that the number of data records exposed to different threats rose to a staggering 36 billion in 2020, with nearly 2,935 publicly reported breaches in just the first three quarters of 2020. These include notable data breaches from reputed companies such as Microsoft (250 million records), Broadvoice (350 million records), Keepnet Labs (5 billion records) & CAM4 (10.88 billion records).
How drastically has the scene changed
With a growing number of security threats and different cybercrimes against Salesforce data, not only do the customers get more irritated, but these incidents also cause heavy reputational, financial and legal damages to companies that mishandle sensitive data. In the current times, digital transformation is definitely changing the way business gets done by encouraging Salesforce companies to rethink everything, including how they operate and deliver value to their customers.
Therefore in today’s world, Salesforce data security has emerged as a vital factor and a major challenge for organizations across the globe that are already underlined by strict regulations and severe consequences, in case sensitive Salesforce data is lost. This has forced them to work towards implementing transparent & secure mechanisms which can help them achieve the freedom & flexibility needed to succeed in a digital economy with confidence.
Frameworks for safeguarding sensitive data
More than ever, in the age of digital transformation organisations need to consider the security of the Salesforce data they collect, store & share. More often than not, there are different legislations and guidelines that ensure that the customers’ data is safe. Over the last few years, there has been a drastic proliferation of data protection laws that introduced new compliance requirements for organizations.
Prominent examples include the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), USA’s Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) & California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), Brazil’s Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados (LGPD), China’s Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL), and India’s Personal Data Protection Bill (PDPB).
Data Protection in CURRENT Times
In a bid to safeguard the sensitive Salesforce data from being lost and to adhere to the above-mentioned data regulations, more and more enterprises have been on the lookout for strategies regarding data protection in Salesforce. It’s worth mentioning that data protection is the process of protecting critical data from both internal as well as external threats and securing it from being compromised or corrupted in any manner.
As the amount of Salesforce data being created & stored by such enterprises is constantly increasing, data protection has quickly become an indispensable aspect for them. Some benefits of Salesforce data protection have been highlighted below:
- Safeguarding valuable Salesforce data from leaks, loss, theft, & other threats
- Improving the brand value and gaining competitive advantage over others
- Maintaining and increasing public, investor and customer confidence
- Complying with strict data security regulations and measures
When creating strategies for Salesforce data protection, enterprises must keep in mind to regularly train employees on digital technologies & cyber security, conduct regular penetration testing to uncover potential vulnerabilities, use applications and devices that have built-in security, integrate different security systems and choose the right security software. Below we mention some of the steps that businesses must take to ensure the protection of their sensitive Salesforce data:
- Improve employee awareness– In order to neutralize the threats due to human errors and negligence, proper training on security awareness and cybersecurity best practices should be made mandatory for all employees to help make them take smart decisions and use appropriate caution when handling sensitive Salesforce data.
- Encrypt sensitive data– Encrypting sensitive Salesforce data records is an important way to secure from malicious outsiders & careless employees and as means to adhere and comply with data protection regulations. Not only the data but even the devices should be properly encrypted.
- Conduct regular risk assessments– Having a well-defined risk assessment strategy is an essential aspect as it can identify vulnerabilities and insufficiencies in the Salesforce system and the employees, in addition to the inadequacies in the security measures. With this, organizations can prevent security incidents and save money in the long run.
- Be proactive– Switching from a reactive approach to a proactive one suits the purpose better as it is always better to prevent a data breach than to recover from one. Detecting potential threats and including robust security measures to protect sensitive Salesforce data is also more economical, safer and faster.
- Deploy a data backup & recovery solution– Lastly, having a proactive data backup & recovery solution in the Salesforce system is an ideal way to reduce the risks involving sensitive Salesforce data. With an efficient data backup & recovery solution for Salesforce data, enterprises can easily discover & monitor confidential information, prevent its unauthorized disclosure by creating & enforcing disclosure policies as well as achieve compliance with different data protection regulations.
Looking at the current trends, it is anyone’s guess that Salesforce data protection will be paramount in the coming times, with security standards and expectations evolving even more. With the increasing number of data protection regulations governing the enterprises using Salesforce, they can no longer neglect the need for efficient data security strategies. In this direction, we have an ideal Salesforce data backup & recovery solution for our customers.
DataArchiva Backup is the perfect all-in-one Salesforce data backup & recovery solution that offers fast, reliable backups and possesses rapid recovery capabilities. Offering reliable cloud backup services & near-instant recovery for the Salesforce data, this tailor-made solution provides seamless customization, setup & management. Our solution, easily available on the AppExchange, is completely aligned with the Salesforce roadmap and supports plenty of its services like Sales Cloud, Service Cloud & Custom Solutions.
DataArchiva Backup can easily be used to overcome various data loss challenges by not only safeguarding the critical Salesforce data but by also ensuring its security within the cloud infrastructure. This cost-effective and easy-to-use solution has the option for both full and incremental backup, which can be manual or premeditated as per the need. Several advantageous features make this application ideal for an enterprise’s long-term Salesforce data management.
To know more about DataArchiva Backup and how this solution has everything your enterprise has been looking for, please get in touch with us or schedule a demo here.
