Salesforce data privacy and data protection features help businesses maintain confidentially of all business data that remains duly encrypted. The method of encryption, better known as Salesforce encryption at rest, entails encoding data to keep it concealed or inaccessible from unauthorized users. The process of data encryption helps protect sensitive information and private data. It helps businesses gain the confidence of stakeholders by enhancing the security of communications between servers and client apps.
- What is Data at Rest encryption?
Data at Rest encryption is an encryption technique deployed by Salesforce to encrypt the underlying files within a file system. Data appears, as plain text while the underlying file system remains encrypted. The encryption technology does not interfere with the application-level features. This feature does not use field–level encryption or any application layer. Salesforce users can enable this feature for their accounts.
The feature uses standard AES256 encryption keys stored separately from the data, resulting in the physical isolation of the encrypted and encrypted data. The feature helps you to meet your regulatory and compliance needs without modification of the existing application code. If any physical media containing sensitive data falls into the wrong hands due to theft, the encryption feature protects data from misuse. Bad actors who want to use the stolen data will not be able to access the encrypted data.
- How does the encryption work?
By design, Salesforce encryption protects data at rest, not during data exchange. Unlike the traditional encryption tools that usually protect data in transit, Salesforce encryption applies to static data only. Although encryption is highly effective in protecting data, users must stay alert and agile to safeguard data and keep a strict vigil on cloud storage.
An HSM-based crypto processor or critical system is at the heart of Salesforce encryption. Organizations have dedicated data encryption keys that they must never share with any unauthorized or unrelated entity. The unique key helps to encrypt and decrypt documents whenever needed.
The specialty of Salesforce encryption is in the use of a probabilistic encryption protocol. Probabilistic encryption uses an algorithm that revolves around random patterns while encoding files. Despite the algorithm encrypting some text repeatedly, it generates a unique text each time. The encryption works alongside the backup system, meaning that users must define their backup parameters using a data backup solution, either native or third party, depending on the organizational needs. You must implement Salesforce Backup and Restore app to encrypt backed-up data.
- Salesforce Encryption Solutions
Classic Salesforce and Shield Platform encryption are the two encryption solutions offered by Salesforce. The standard functionality of the Classic Salesforce encryption is included in the basic licensing agreement.
The Salesforce Shield Platform is a paid encryption service offered to clients looking for a more robust solution like encryption of 256-bit based on the BYOK (Bring Your Keys) philosophy. Users can manage the encryption keys by themselves without relying on Salesforce.
Organizations that handle sensitive data prefer to use the Salesforce Shield Platform encryption that follows stringent regulatory requirements.
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