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How a Salesforce Code Scanner Boosts Data Security

Josh Rank
January 5, 2022

Data security needs to be a major concern for all Salesforce developers. The applications and updates you produce can either guard against or create potential security risks.

Buggy or malfunctioning software creates unnecessary data security vulnerabilities.

As is the case with other aspects of your products, the quality of code will have a drastic impact on the success of your security strategy. 2021 saw a large number of high-profile data breaches. And while there are a variety of potential causes of these types of incidents, healthy code can provide an extra layer of protection.

A Salesforce code scanner is a powerful piece of a complete DevSecOps toolset. Static code analysis provides a series of benefits, including protecting the stability of your environment as a whole.

Here are 6 ways a Salesforce code scanner supports your data security strategy:

Reduction of Technical Debt
Early Alerts to Coding Errors
Address Salesforce Metadata
Increased Release Velocity
Align with Various Security Standards
Integrate with Other DevSecOps Tools

1. Reduction of Technical Debt

Technical debt is the equivalent of putting something off until later. This can take many forms, but it often involves faulty functionality, potential bugs, and incomplete structures. Technical debt is created with the goal of increasing the speed of producing a software update or application.

However, simply leaving something for later can create data security vulnerabilities that have the potential to be exploited before they can be rectified.

A Salesforce code scanner reduces this technical debt by alerting developers to these errors and vulnerabilities the moment they are introduced to the application.

Utilizing up to 600 built-in rules, this tool scans your code so these mistakes can be fixed long before they have an opportunity to cause data security issues. It can be integrated with an existing DevSecOps platform to support further testing creating a more secure and complete pipeline.

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2. Early Alerts to Coding Errors

As we’ve seen through technical debt, it’s in your best interests to find and fix coding errors as soon as possible. Not only does this shore up potential data security vulnerabilities before they can be exploited, but it also saves your company money.

Errors that aren’t found until the staging phase of DevOps can be up to 50 times more expensive to fix.

This becomes even more drastic if errors aren’t found until production, when they can be up to 150 times more expensive to fix.

These bugs and errors can be located immediately with the help of a Salesforce code scanner. This automated tool inspects every line of code the moment it is written to prevent any issues from snowballing to become large problems down the road.

Your ROI will thank you, and so will the data security department.

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3. Address Salesforce Metadata

Your system data needs to be protected, but your data security strategy should go a step further. The protection of Salesforce metadata is not only addressed in a variety of data security regulations, but it is also required to properly protect the functionality of your system.

Every screen update or written line of code will create metadata.

These properties impact other fields and sections of a given update or application. Failure to properly care for these relationships slows development, breaks orgs, and has the potential to expose sensitive data.

Code scanning tools can also be used to address unique environment requirements to protect Salesforce metadata. This is a crucial aspect of data governance and can have an impact on your compliance with data security regulations.

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4. Increased Release Velocity

Data security requires constant attention. Threats and bad actors are always evolving to find new ways to compromise your Salesforce environment. There are many ways to stay on top of these threats, and one of the most effective is to release frequent software updates to protect your system from emerging potential threats.

The ability to quickly and securely move an update through your Salesforce DevOps pipeline is essential to accomplishing this goal.

Automated code review processes speed along procedures that might have otherwise been performed manually. Automating these processes also increases the accuracy of these reviews, leading to a better, more secure final product.

Automated reviews with a Salesforce code scanner also frees up your team members to address more pressing matters, increasing productivity. You’ll be able to get your products to market faster without sacrificing quality.

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5. Align with Various Security Standards

Compliance with various regulations will depend on your industry, location, and how you handle your sensitive system data. Individual research will be required to ensure your data governance strategy aligns will all applicable regulations, but there are updated standards in place that can be used as a guidepost to direct your data security methods.

CWO, OWASP, and SANS standards are all included in CodeScan’s Salesforce code scanner tool to helps your DevOps team maintain adherence to applicable data security regulations.

Failure to adhere to these regulations can leave a company open for fines and regulations, but that shouldn’t be the main driving factor for compliance. Maintaining proper levels of data security should always be your goal. Use these standards and regulations as a roadmap toward properly protecting not only your system data, but also the sensitive information of your team members and customers.

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6. Integrate with Other DevSecOps Tools

Data security requires a multi-pronged approach. There are a variety of potential threats to your systems data—cybercriminals, system failures, team member errors—so it is essential to utilize every tool at your disposal.

A complete Salesforce DevSecOps pipeline will include a series of tools aimed at improving release velocity, quality, and data security. A Salesforce code scanner needs to be included in your arsenal of DevSecOps tools.

Code scanning tools can be implemented with a DevSecOps platform to support surrounding testing methods such as Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery. IDE developer tools and vulnerability assessments further this effort to consistently develop clean code at a high speed to keep your system current and stable. Combining static code analysis with a Salesforce policy scanner automates the essential oversight needed to boost data security and support regulatory compliance.