If there is one thing the past few years have taught organizations, it is that data security threats are on the rise – and continue to grow in both sophistication and costliness. In fact, the cost of cybercrime is predicted to increase by 15% over the next several years, according to the 2022 Official Cybercrime Report published by Cybersecurity Ventures.
This evolving landscape poses several challenges for organizations across industries. How can your organization position itself to meet these threats head-on and ensure your Salesforce data remains protected in 2023 and beyond?
The answer involves following the tenets of data stewardship. Because Salesforce holds so much of your business-critical data, it’s vital to adopt an offensive data stewardship strategy that protects your customers and mitigates risk. This includes clear policies and procedures for how you manage your Salesforce data at every stage of its lifecycle.
At FormAssembly, our mission as an enterprise data collection solution is to help our customers be good stewards of the data entrusted to them. Data stewardship is an umbrella term that encompasses best practices concerning the collection, use, and confidentiality of personal information. We believe that taking this stance is no longer just an option, but every organization’s ethical and corporate responsibility.
Here is how practicing good data stewardship can help protect your Salesforce data.
Compliance With Regulatory Frameworks
Lawfulness is the first and most important tenet of data stewardship, meaning that an organization’s data policies and processes must comply with relevant laws and regulations. Failure to comply with these regulations not only increases data threats to your organization, but also impacts consumer trust and the risk of penalties due to non-compliance.
Common business obligations under data privacy frameworks include:
- Notice/transparency requirements
- Legal basis for processing
- Purpose limitation
- Data minimization
- Security requirements
- Privacy by design
- Record keeping
- Risk assessments
- Data breach notification
- Cross-border data transfer restrictions
The exact requirements of the laws and regulations will vary depending on your location and industry, as well as when dealing with customers in other countries. Even if you’re not currently required to comply with laws like CCPA or GDPR, it may be in your best interest to start aligning with those requirements now to stay a step ahead of any upcoming legislation.
Maintaining regulatory compliance with Salesforce data is required from the moment data is collected until it is deleted. Make sure the policies and processes (and those of any additional third-party vendors) you have in place meet these requirements.
Secure Processes for Sensitive Data
Data stewardship also calls for maintaining strict control over who can access sensitive data. Regardless of the reason, your organization has a responsibility to implement strong security measures that protect all personal data while it is in your possession.
We know that human error is a common cause of data breaches. It is vital for all Salesforce users within your organization to maintain control over their login credentials with strong passwords, and to undergo regular employee security training.
Within Salesforce, secure processes mean only allowing access to data that is necessary for an employee to complete their job. This also means ensuring that Salesforce Administrators follow protocols for entering and organizing data in Salesforce to improve data quality and make it easier to correct, manage, and analyze.
If your Salesforce platform interacts with third-party vendors, your organization must also be diligent in ensuring these tools meet necessary security standards. Never trust your organization’s data to a vendor without taking these steps:
- Review the security and compliance standards in vendor contracts.
- Limit data access to a need-only basis and delete data when a contract ends.
- Understand if and when cross-border data transfers occur.
Benefiting From a Data Stewardship Strategy
Salesforce helps power your organization and its mission, but we all have a responsibility to be good stewards of the data entrusted to us. Because so much customer data lives within your Salesforce environment, it is your responsibility to make sure this information stays compliant and secure while in your care.
Implementing a data stewardship program at your organization has many advantages, including:
- Compliance with data privacy laws and regulations.
- Clearly defined data policies and processes.
- Create effective and efficient data analytics.
- Improve data quality, accessibility, and usability.
- Better and more reliable data-driven decisions.
About FormAssembly
FormAssembly is a powerful enterprise data collection platform that lets users gather data, build workflows, and improve efficiency with a no-code, form-based solution that can be up and running in minutes. With FormAssembly, users have a powerful, easy-to-use solution for collecting, managing, and leveraging data. And business leaders get enterprise-grade security, compliance, and privacy to advance their data stewardship programs.
Learn more about how FormAssembly helps organizations become better stewards of their data by watching their on-demand webinar, ‘5 Steps to Implement Data Stewardship at Your Organization’.
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