Boost Salesforce Security with Role-Based Audits This New Year
As the new year begins, it's the perfect time to reinforce the security of your Salesforce environment. With the ever-growing complexity of user roles, permissions, and data access, businesses must ensure that the right people have the right access—and nothing more.
Conducting regular role-based audits not only strengthens your organization's security but also protects your customers, builds trust, and aligns your system with compliance standards.
In this blog, we’ll share actionable steps to review and optimize Salesforce roles and permissions so you can kick off the year with confidence.
Why Regular Role-Based Audits Are Crucial
Outdated roles and excessive permissions can lead to serious risks:
Data Leaks: Overly permissive access increases the chance of accidental or malicious data exposure.
Compliance Risks: Regulations like GDPR and CCPA require strict access management.
Security Threats: Unauthorized access can compromise sensitive business information.
According to Salesforce, businesses that proactively manage roles and permissions reduce their risk of data breaches by up to 30% (Salesforce Trust).
A role-based audit ensures:
Users only access what’s necessary for their jobs.
Permissions remain aligned with current responsibilities.
Your Salesforce org stays clean, compliant, and secure.
3 Steps to Conduct a Role-Based Audit in Salesforce
1. Review User Access and Clean Up Inactive Accounts
What to do: Start by identifying user roles, permissions, and inactive accounts.
Steps:
Generate a user access report via Setup > Users > Permission Set Assignments to see active roles and permissions.
Sort users by "Last Login Date" in Setup > Users to identify inactive accounts (30-60 days of inactivity).
Deactivate unused accounts, revoke unnecessary permissions, and document updates.
Why It Matters: This removes redundant access, minimizes risks, and keeps your user list clean.
2. Audit Roles, Profiles, and Sensitive Data Access
What to do: Check for over-privileged access and ensure sensitive data is secure.
Steps:
Review role hierarchies under Setup > Roles and flag roles with "View All" or "Modify All" permissions.
Use Permission Set Groups to consolidate permissions for a clean, role-based structure.
Adjust Field-Level Security under Object Manager to ensure sensitive fields are restricted based on roles.
Quick Fix: Apply the least privilege principle so users only access what they need to perform their tasks.
3. Schedule Regular Reviews and Automate Alerts
What to do: Make role-based audits a recurring process and monitor changes proactively.
Steps:
Set a recurring task in Salesforce for quarterly or biannual role-based audits.
Use Reports and Dashboards to monitor role and permission changes.
Automate alerts for unexpected changes to roles or permissions to stay informed.
Pro Tip: Document audit results for compliance and accountability within your organization.
How This Improves Your Salesforce Security
By conducting regular role-based audits, your organization will:
Enhance Security: Reduce unauthorized access and data leaks.
Stay Compliant: Align with data protection regulations like GDPR and CCPA.
Build Trust: Protect sensitive customer and company information.
According to IBM Security, organizations that effectively manage access controls save an average of $1.1 million per data breach in mitigation costs (IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report).
Contact Equals 11 today to check how we can help your Salesforce security.
