Salesforce Security Best Practices

TL;DR

• Salesforce stores highly sensitive customer data—but lacks native DLP. Without built-in content scanning or remediation, sensitive data in attachments, notes, and custom fields often goes unprotected.
• Security teams must implement best practices like RBAC, MFA, Field-Level Security, and Salesforce Health Check to minimize insider threats, misconfigurations, and access-related breaches.
• A modern DLP solution like Strac fills Salesforce’s security gaps by discovering sensitive data in real time, classifying it intelligently, and proactively redacting or encrypting it to ensure compliance and prevent costly data leaks.

‎Salesforce is the world’s leading CRM. It’s become the heart of many organizations' customer operations. It holds sensitive data like contact records, revenue dashboards, and sensitive customer information in support tickets. 

Unfortunately, Salesforce does not have built-in Data Loss Prevention (DLP) to protect all this sensitive data. According to Salesforce, 88% of sensitive fields are accessible to too many users. That puts the burden on security teams to implement guardrails.

In this guide, we’ll explore the most important Salesforce security best practices, what to look for in a DLP solution, and how Strac can help you protect your most critical CRM data.

✨ The Top 5 Salesforce Security Best Practices

‎1. Run a Salesforce Health Check

Identify potential security vulnerabilities and get a list of recommended actions from Salesforce’s built-in ‎security health check ‎tool to assess password policies, session settings, and other controls.

2. Enforce Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) 

Ensure users only have access to the data they need. For example, a sales rep should not be able to view HR or legal data stored in Salesforce.


This also applies to customer contracts, which often contain sensitive pricing, terms, and legal agreements. Use granular permission sets to ensure that only authorized roles (e.g., Legal, Finance) can view or edit contract records or attachments.

3. Apply Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

Require all users to authenticate with an extra layer of security, like SMS, authenticator app, or a physical MFA key, especially when accessing Salesforce remotely.

Note: Salesforce requires MFA for all internal users from 2022.

4. Implement Field-Level Security & Data Masking:

Sensitive fields like Social Security Numbers (SSNs), bank details, or health data should be masked or encrypted. Only authorized users should see full values.

5. Prevent Data Exfiltration with Transaction-Based Policies

Preventing data exfiltration starts with detecting the behaviors that precede it—like excessive report exports, large API pulls, or unauthorized app integrations. These activities often fly under the radar unless you have monitoring and enforcement policies in place.

Use Salesforce’s transaction security policies or Event Monitoring (via Shield) to log and flag suspicious patterns. For more proactive control, integrate a DLP solution like Strac, which can scan the contents of exported data in real time, enforce thresholds, and automatically redact, block, or alert when sensitive data is at risk of leaving your environment.

6. Use Salesforce Shield

Salesforce Shield is an advanced security suite for Salesforce customers. It provides security features like encryption, event monitoring, and field audit trails.

Salesforce Shield is a premium, advanced security add-on, for Salesforce customers to gain better visibility and control over their data. It includes:

• Event Monitoring: Generates detailed audit logs of user activity—such as report exports, API calls, and file downloads—which are critical for forensic investigations, compliance audits, and detecting risky or anomalous behaviors.
• Platform Encryption: Provides AES-256 encryption for sensitive fields like SSNs, financials, or health data—without breaking standard Salesforce functionality.
• Field Audit Trail: Extends historical tracking of changes made to data fields, which supports compliance requirements and internal accountability.

While Shield enhances your ability to detect issues, it does not offer real-time enforcement. That’s why many organizations use Shield in combination with a DLP solution like Strac, which can respond instantly—blocking, redacting, or alerting when sensitive data is at risk.

Cost Note: According to Security Magazine, the full Salesforce Shield suite typically adds 30% to your annual Salesforce spend, with Event Monitoring and Encryption modules priced individually at around 10–20% each. Most organizations negotiate these rates during licensing or renewal cycles.

‎What Problems Do Salesforce Security Best Practices Solve?

Neglecting Salesforce security best practices opens the door to a range of risks:

1. Data Breaches from Overprivileged Users:

Without access controls, one compromised account can expose entire datasets. RBAC and permissions guard against this. For reference, a Verizon study found that 66% of breaches involve inside actors.

2. Compliance Failures:

Regulations like HIPAA, GDPR, and PCI-DSS demand rigorous data controls. Lack of encryption, audit trails, or remediation workflows in Salesforce can result in costly penalties and major reputational impact.

3. Shadow Data in Salesforce Attachments or Notes:

Sensitive PII often lurks in unstructured places: notes, attachments, support case comments. Data security starts by knowing what data you need to secure, otherwise, you won’t know what to protect.

What Does an Ideal "Ssealesforce Security Best Practices" Solution Need?

To protect Salesforce effectively, your security stack should include:

✅ Real-Time Sensitive Data Discovery

• Detect PII, PHI, PCI, or secrets across Salesforce records, attachments, and custom objects. Detection should work across structured and unstructured data.

✅ Customizable Classification & Policy Enforcement

• Apply rules based on department, field type, or record sensitivity. Data governance shouldn’t be one-size-fits-all.

✅ Proactive Remediation Tools

• Redact, mask, block, or encrypt sensitive data—automatically. Stop leaks before they happen.

✅ Audit-Ready Compliance Reporting

• Generate audit logs and evidence for frameworks like SOC 2, HIPAA, ISO-27001, and GDPR.

✅ Easy Integration & Low Maintenance

• Integration should take minutes, not months. You shouldn’t need a Salesforce engineer to maintain your DLP rules.

✨ How Strac Elevates Salesforce Security Best Practices

Strac is a modern DSPM (Data Security Posture Management) and DLP (Data Loss Prevention) platform designed for cloud-first environments like Salesforce. It extends native security features and fills critical gaps.

‎Here’s how Strac strengthens your Salesforce security best practices:

• Full-Spectrum Data Discovery: Scans all structured and unstructured content—including Salesforce notes, attachments, emails, and custom fields.
• Smart Classification: Uses machine learning and OCR to classify sensitive data, customizable to your org’s risk profile.
• Automated Remediation: Redact PII in real time. Encrypt files in attachments. Delete sensitive records that violate policy.
• Instant SaaS Integration: Deploy in under 10 minutes with Strac’s no-code Salesforce integration.

Regulatory Compliance: Supports HIPAA, SOC 2, PCI-DSS, ISO-27001, GDPR, and more.

🎥 See Strac’s real-time redaction in Salesforce

The Takeaway: Modern Salesforce Security Requires DLP

Salesforce holds mission-critical business data—and attackers know it. Following Salesforce security best practices is your first line of defense. But to truly safeguard your environment, it’s crucial to implement data loss prevention policies and tools.

With Strac, you can discover, classify, and protect sensitive Salesforce data in real-time, while supporting compliance and reducing operational friction. 

Want to see it in action? Schedule a demo today.

Explore more:

• Strac's Salesforce Integration
• Strac DLP Techniques
• Sensitive Data Catalog

Frequently Asked Questions - Salesforce Security Best Practices

1. Does Salesforce encrypt data at rest by default?

Yes, but for full control, consider Salesforce Shield in conjunction with a DLP tool like Strac to encrypt specific fields and attachments.

2. How can I stop users from emailing out sensitive Salesforce records?

Integrate a DLP platform like Strac that scans outbound email content and triggers alerts or redaction automatically.

3. Can I detect sensitive data inside attachments in Salesforce?

Not with standard tools. Strac scans and classifies data inside PDFs, images, ZIP files, and more.

4. What’s the best way to manage access across multiple Salesforce orgs?

Implement centralized identity access management (IAM) and role-based permissions consistently across environments.

5. Is Salesforce Shield enough for compliance?

It’s a great start, but not always enough. Combine Shield with a DSPM/DLP platform like Strac for complete coverage.

6. How do I handle deleted data thatw may still exist in backups or exports?

Use Strac’s remediation and deletion workflows to sanitize sensitive data even in secondary storage.

7. Can I create custom data policies for different business units?

Yes, Strac allows granular, policy-based controls by app, user, or department.