Salesforce administrators are some of the most in-demand professionals the world is waking up to today. As such, having knowledge of the security tactics for Salesforce administrators not only puts you ahead of the competition but also makes your work as an admin much easier.

With the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution now in use in more than 150,000 organizations globally, and each needing one or more admins, the role is undoubtedly set to become even more attractive in the coming years.

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However, getting the job is just half the work. Salesforce administrators are extremely busy. Once you begin working, you’re expected to keep the organization’s Salesforce projects alive and even identify new ways to use the CRM to boost organizational profitability while sustaining growth.

This often means that the Salesforce administrator interacts with multiple people, processes, and data types. One moment you might be meeting clients to discuss their needs and the next, presenting findings to C-Level staff.

5 Data Security Tactics For Salesforce Administrators

Considering the high rates of cybercrime today, you’ll need to be security-conscious to juggle all the duties and responsibilities without exposing your organization to risk. Fortunately, we know the data security habits to help avoid any trouble.

Review roles, sharing, and field-level security

One of the very first security tactics for Salesforce administrators you need to help you keep organizational data secure and protect the company from hackers and cybercriminals is a review plan that allows you to consistently evaluate roles, sharing, and field-level security. How often you review these areas is up to you.

However, the best admins assess roles ad sharing rules at least every year to ensure that everything is working as envisages.

Some of the considerations when performing annual reviews include whether new objects have been created. If so, you need to know the organization-wide defaults for the project. Is it private or public?

You also need to review the sharing-rule criteria to determine whether they’re valid. If not, then perhaps you need to redefine the rules based on new values or fields.

Also, make sure that custom rules align with current businesses processes and review permission sets and permission set groups. You can even activate session-based permission sets if you wish.

Align with IT

Different organizations work differently. While others are free to do most things as they wish, others are strictly regulated. For example, organizations in the healthcare industry must operate in strict compliance with HIPAA requirements.

Otherwise, the organization may even lose its license. The financial sector is another closely regulated industry.

One of the security tactics for Salesforce administrators to ensure compliance and avoid trouble in tightly regulated industries is to closely alight with IT. There are a few things you need to do. For instance, you want to coordinate your employee onboarding and off-boarding with the IT and HR teams so that new hires or those leaving the company don’t become data security threats.

You may also demand sophisticated passwords and a defined password change every month or so. For companies using single sign-on, another trick that works is configuring Salesforce to work with the existing SSO provider.

If you’re not familiar with it, SSO lets users authorize network resources with one set of credentials.

Implement multi-factor authentication

Multi-factor authentication means requiring more than two steps to grant user access. For instance, you can require a password and a pattern for users to unlock company computers.

After entering the password, the computer will prompt the user to enter a pattern to gain entry. Entry is refused if the user can’t provide both authentication factors (credentials).

Another option that works excellently is password generation upon entering user logins. For instance, all users working within the organization’s Salesforce environment may be assigned logins (email + password).

Upon entering the correct logins, the system automatically generates a 4-6-digit code that the user enters to complete the login process.

The main benefit of two-factor authentication is that it makes it much harder for intruders to access the system.

This is true even in circumstances where a legitimate user loses their primary login credentials. Since they may not access the second authentication factor, they still can’t log in.

Make mobile device security a priority

The biggest challenge for IT security personnel today is managing mobile devices. As more people shift to remote work and more employers allow Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) approaches at work, securing the workplace has become even more difficult.

What if an employee’s phone is infected? What happens if the employee loses their laptop to a cybercriminal? Salesforce admins must make this a priority and take steps to ensure that BYOD doesn’t compromise security in their department.

Fortunately, there are several security tactics for Salesforce administrators you can implement to counter it. For instance, you want to regularly update your device’s software and apps to seal all loopholes and keep security threats at bay.

Additionally, consider features such as Find My iPhone, the Android Device Manager, and fingerprint locks to secure and track devices as appropriate.

Salesforce admins must also train users to only download trusted apps and avoid downloading suspicious files on BYOD devices.

Review logins periodically

Finally, Salesforce administrators must also make it a habit to review login history and identity verification history to catch any anomalies and flag any suspicious entries. The history of logins in the Salesforce environment is stored in the Login History area. You can also view more login history details in the Identity Verification area in Setup.

Some of the things to focus on include checking whether people are logging in from unusual countries. Unless you have customers from the said countries, the login attempts might be suspicious.

Unsuccessful repeated login attempts from the same clients are another thing to look out for. It could be a sign someone is attempting to hack into your system.

Finally, don’t forget to keep an eye out for logins from strange applications or platforms. If you don’t recognize the platform, something could be off.

Summary

The Salesforce admin role comes with significant security duties. From the moment you step into the role, you’re responsible for ensuring that users under you don’t pose a security threat to the organization while also minimizing external threats.

The above security tactics for Salesforce administrators discussed will help you successfully deliver on your security responsibilities and save your career.