Exploring the examination of security breaches in Salesforce through forensic analysis

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In today's digital age, securing business-critical data is paramount for any organisation. Salesforce, a leading customer relationship management platform, offers a range of tools to help companies proactively prepare for and respond to security incidents.

One such tool is Real-time Event Monitoring (RTEM), which includes special threat detection events for unusual activities. RTEM provides valuable insights, such as indicating which datasets and fields were queried during an incident, a detail that is not available with ELF (Event Log Files) and ELO (Event Log Objects).

RTEM's extended transaction security feature allows for the configuration of specific policy rules that trigger a response upon violations. This can be particularly useful in identifying and resolving data exfiltration incidents.

Activity logs form the basis of any investigation and include standard logs like login history and setup audit trail. Salesforce Shield's event monitoring provides additional insight into API calls, report exports, and file downloads. Any report containing sensitive fields can be blocked for download according to the policies configured in Transaction Security Policies (TSP).

Regular log monitoring helps become familiar with typical activities in a Salesforce environment, making it easier to detect deviations. Forensic insights from log analysis can also help prevent unauthorized access, plan future remediation, and initiate legal action.

The Forensic Guide for Investigating Security Incidents within Salesforce environments, created by the Salesforce Security Team, consolidates best practices in three key areas: activity logs, user permissions, and backup data. The guide recommends checking what has changed in an organization to verify the integrity of data and security configuration.

Restricting guest user permissions in Salesforce Digital Experience portals can prevent unwanted data exposure. The Who Sees What Explorer tool in the Security Center allows administrators to view profiles, permission sets, sharing rules, and role hierarchies, providing a comprehensive overview of user permissions.

Backups are invaluable for ensuring data integrity and restoring damaged data to a known good state. They are essential for quick incident resolution and should be part of any organisation's security strategy.

In conclusion, companies that proactively prepare for security incidents affecting business-critical Salesforce data are better equipped to identify, investigate, and resolve issues quickly. By leveraging the tools and resources provided by Salesforce, organisations can minimise the impact of security incidents and maintain the trust of their customers.