DEVOPS CYBERSECURITY
The proliferation of cloud-native applications and DevOps technologies are transforming the landscape of IT operations in the Salesforce space. Organizations that have embraced these new technologies must now contend with their associated risks, particularly around security and compliance. At the forefront of DevOps security is the need for robust attention around both software and system-level security. Software security is critical to ensure the integrity and availability of applications and services, whereas system security, including data backup, verification and protection, is also essential for protecting end-user data and associated documents. Organizations increasingly rely on a combination of automated and manual tools, processes, and frameworks to ensure the protection of their proprietary data and confidential documents. This level of security requires an ongoing level of monitoring, evaluation, and response capability to address evolving threats and emerging vulnerabilities. At the same time, DevOps requires continuous delivery of services, products, and features to meet customer demands. As such, companies in the Salesforce ecosystem must also be aware of the security implications of their release management and data backup and recovery systems. Organizations need to focus on auditing Salesforce software release pipelines to ensure the safety of their customers’ data. This auditing process starts with the development of appropriate processes and validations to detect any emerging vulnerabilities or threats through real-time monitoring and automated scans. It is also important to ensure that all user input data is filtered, validated, and securely stored. This includes external data sources, such as third-party APIs, customer information, web services, and other similar sources. Data backup is another critical element in DevOps security. Backup should be performed on a regular basis, preferably monthly or weekly, depending on the organization’s needs. The best approach is to incorporate backup into the main release cycle to ensure data is never lost due to system-level issues. A high-availability architecture should also be adopted to guarantee redundancy in the system, allowing organizations to quickly resume operations in the event of a network outage or system failure. When it comes to security, Salesforce organizations also need to assess their frameworks and practices to ensure data is adequately protected. This assessment should cover a variety of security controls, such as access management, identity and access control, data encryption, authentication and authorization mechanisms, and audit logging. Moreover, organizations should have the capability to respond to potential security events within minutes to limit potential damage. The main message for enterprise users looking for robust security across Salesforce release management, data backup and recovery, and security solutions is to understand that the time has come to ensure that their systems and services are compliant and secure when measured against the most rigorous standards—over and above those set by regulators. Failing to adopt strict security protocols, best practices, and the necessary tools and processes needed to ensure proper security of their Salesforce environment can have vast and damaging financial, reputational and legal implications.
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