Safeguard Your Salesforce Marketing Cloud: 5 Best Practices to Follow

With more businesses relying on digital technologies and cloud-based storage solutions, the frequency of cyber-attacks and data breaches is increasing significantly.

According to estimates, around 33 billion accounts are expected to be breached in 2023^[i], and cybercrime is rapidly increasing with damages predicted to reach $10.5 trillion USD by 2025^[ii].

Any brand that could lose customer data eventually puts its reliability in question. Failing to implement robust data security and privacy mechanisms could result in the loss of data and customer trust.

Salesforce is and has always been at the forefront of providing a secure cloud suite. In order to establish trust among its customers, Salesforce incorporates a variety of security tools into each of the services it offers.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud, like the core Salesforce platform, includes a built-in, enterprise-grade security system. However, in today’s age where cybercrime is an increasingly growing threat, it’s not wise to rely solely on these measures as a line of defense.

Continue reading this blog post to fortify your Salesforce Marketing Cloud from any vulnerabilities.

5 Best Practices to Secure Your Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Securing your Salesforce Marketing Cloud equips you to protect your customer data and tackle the rising threats so that you can be ready for the future. Here’s how you can do it:

1. Account Security Settings Configuration

Configuring your Salesforce Marketing Cloud account security settings is the first step towards enhanced security. To do so, you must:

• Set up strong passwords and use two-factor authentication
• Specify the time limit for which the application can remain active in a browser before the session automatically ends
• Enable IP restrictions
• Add user roles and permissions to limit access
• Enable audit trails
• Enable ‘enforce export email allowlist’
• Implement password policies
• Regularly review and update your security settings

2. Manage Installed Packages Securely

Installed packages in the Salesforce Marketing Cloud has components that include essential configuration details for the application or API integration that is being developed. This is why, it is important to keep them secure.

To manage installed packages securely in Salesforce Marketing Cloud, you must regularly review them and remove the ones that are not required.

Here’s what you should do:

• Install packages from trusted sources and review the package’s security settings before installation.
• Control access to the packages by setting up permissions and roles, and monitor package activity to identify any unusual behavior.

3. Security of Marketing Cloud API Integrations

Securing Marketing Cloud API integrations in Salesforce is important to protect sensitive data exchanged between Marketing Cloud and other systems.

Use secure authentication methods such as OAuth or JWT, and implement rate limits to prevent API misuse.

Encrypting data, using role-based access control, enabling audit trails, and regularly reviewing API access can help keep vulnerabilities at bay from your Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

4. Evaluate the Access Level of Your Users

Evaluating the access level of users in Salesforce Marketing Cloud reduces the risk of cyber threats and maintains system integrity.

Here are some best practices to help you evaluate user access levels:

• Review user permissions in your system and ensure that users have the relevant access to perform their roles.
• Conduct regular security audits to identify any unauthorized access or unusual user activity.
• Limit admin access to usually 2-3 (may vary as per your business needs) and ensure that they have strong passwords and two-factor authentication.
• Monitor login activity to identify suspicious activities or unauthorized access.
• Implement IP restrictions to limit access to your system from specific IP addresses or ranges.

5. Limit the Amount of Sensitive Data in Marketing Cloud

Marketing Cloud is a platform to manage customer interactions and engagement. Treating it as a data warehouse can lead to security pitfalls, compliance issues, and performance problems.

So, it is important to limit the amount of sensitive data stored in the Marketing Cloud. To mitigate security risks, it is advisable to establish a rigorous data retention policy, and to safeguard against potential data loss, it is important to regularly back up your data.

For storing large amounts of data, consider using a separate data warehouse, and integrating it with Marketing Cloud for analysis and reporting.

Pro-Tips to Secure Your Marketing Cloud Account

To secure your Salesforce Marketing Cloud account, here are some recommended actions to take:

• Configure security settings such as password policies, session timeout, and IP restrictions.
• Monitor user and API activity in your account to detect any suspicious activity or unauthorized access.
• Keep your account up-to-date by applying security patches and updates promptly.
• Use encryption to guard sensitive data in transit and at rest.

Conclusion

By prioritizing security for your Salesforce Marketing Cloud, you can win customers’ trust & loyalty. To do so, simply follow the best practices mentioned in the blog post, and you can create a human firewall to protect customer data from accidental breaches and cyber attacks.

Want to Protect Your Sensitive Data and Win Trust of Your Customers? Talk to Us!

Statistical References:

^[i] Dataprot
^[ii] Cybersecurity Ventures