Securing Your Salesforce Community
Ensuring the security of user data is a critical priority when it comes to Salesforce Communities (Experience Cloud). As organizations increasingly rely on Salesforce Communities to engage with external users, adopting robust security practices that protect sensitive information from unauthorized access is essential.
Preventing Public Access to Sensitive User Data
One area that organizations often overlook is the visibility of fields on community user records, particularly regarding API access. Misconfigurations can inadvertently expose sensitive data such as email addresses and usernames (which are often derived from users’ email addresses). This underscores the need for organizations to be vigilant about their security configurations, especially when sensitive user data is involved.
Managing Personal Information Visibility
Fields on the user object cannot be controlled in the same manner as other objects using field-level security. Instead, this is managed through a feature called Enhanced Personal Information Management, which is located (somewhat unintuitively) in the User Management Settings. This feature restricts access to a customizable set of fields on User records and prevents them from being exposed through the API.
Before the Enhanced Personal Information Management feature was introduced in the Spring ’22 release, access to these fields on the User object was managed through more traditional methods. In Salesforce orgs created before Spring ’22, this feature was not enabled by default and must be turned on manually.
Enabling this feature is one example of a simple step that can mitigate potential risks and enhance the overall security of a Salesforce Community.
Proactive Security Practices for Salesforce Communities
This highlights the importance of regularly reviewing Salesforce release notes and security settings, particularly for communities and other environments accessible to external users. Many organizations may not be aware of the Enhanced Personal Information Management feature or the potential risks associated with having it disabled. Regularly reviewing and updating security configurations is about fixing vulnerabilities and staying ahead of potential threats. Key areas to evaluate include:
- Guest User Access
- API Access Controls
- Community Visibility Settings
- Sharing Settings, Profiles, and Permission Sets
- Third-Party Integrations
Take Action Today
The security of a Salesforce environment is critical to protecting an organization’s data and maintaining customers’ trust. Organizations unsure whether their Salesforce Communities are configured securely or seeking an expert assessment of their org’s security settings are encouraged to reach out to our team to request a Communities Health Check. With extensive experience in designing and maintaining secure, functional communities, our team specializes in ensuring data remains protected while providing a seamless user experience. Click here to learn more about EpiGrowth’s services.
