Salesforce Shield — What’s Included, How It Works, and How to Implement

Protecting sensitive data is non-negotiable, no matter what industry your business is in. And if your applications run on Salesforce, you already have a powerful platform at your fingertips. But when compliance requirements get stricter and data threats get more advanced, you need security that goes even deeper.

Salesforce Shield offers an additional layer of security that you might be looking for. Get a clear understanding of what Shield is, what’s included, and how to implement it step by step — so you can meet changing data security standards and stay confident in your compliance posture.

Salesforce Shield is a premium suite of security and compliance tools built into the Agentforce 360 Platform. It was designed for businesses that manage sensitive customer data or operate in heavily regulated industries, and it adds an extra layer of protection to your existing Salesforce environment.

Shield offers field-level encryption, long-term audit trails, event monitoring, and sensitive data detection to safeguard your organization’s most valuable information. Whether you’re aiming to meet HIPAA, SOX, or GDPR requirements or you just want better visibility into how data is accessed and used, Shield helps you stay secure and compliant without sacrificing productivity.

With Shield, you can:

• Strengthen your data security with visibility into user activity
• Meet industry regulations with customizable retention policies
• Detect sensitive data (and protect it) before it creates compliance risk
• Extend trust by demonstrating strong internal controls

Salesforce Shield includes four core products that work together to protect data and monitor usage. These include:

• Platform Encryption
• Field Audit Trail
• Event Monitoring
• Data Detect

Each feature is deeply integrated into the Salesforce ecosystem, giving you strong security without added complexity. For a detailed breakdown of how each tool functions and when to use them, check out the Salesforce Shield security guide.

Unlike classic encryption, which only encrypts a limited set of standard fields, Shield Platform Encryption uses advanced, field-level protection powered by AES 256-bit encryption. This is makes it possible to encrypt custom fields and attachments while keeping the user experience largely intact.

Shield Platform Encryption protects data at rest, meaning it’s encrypted while stored in Salesforce data centers. Customers can also enable BYOK to manage their own encryption keys, adding an extra layer of control.

Keep in mind that encrypted fields may not behave like unencrypted ones in reports or list views. It’s important to test encryption settings carefully to make sure functionality is preserved — especially for the workflows most important to your operations. This is where database encryption can be valuable. With Database encryption, data is encrypted transparently (invisible encryption) at the Salesforce database tier – so essential operations like sorting, filtering, and running SOQL queries work seamlessly on the encrypted data without restrictions

If you need a complete, searchable history of who changed what and when, Field Audit Trail captures just that. It’s a powerful tool for both compliance and internal audits since it offers you long-term visibility into how your data evolves over time.

Key features of Field Audit Trail include:

• Retention for up to 10 years of field-level history
• Detailed tracking of changes by user, time, and content
• Support for major compliance frameworks like HIPAA and SOX
• Customizable data retention policies by object or organization
• Full visibility into historical values via reports and dashboards

With this level of transparency, you can answer audit questions faster and build a clear chain of custody for your data.

Think of Event Monitoring as your behind-the-scenes security camera. It keeps track of user and API activity across your organization, and that can help you detect suspicious behavior and respond before it becomes a real problem.

Here’s what Event Monitoring lets you do:

• Capture and log over 70 types of user and system events
• Set up alerts for unusual behavior like mass downloads or off-hours access
• Understand security, adoption, and performance trends through built-in dashboards
• Integrate with third-party tools or SIEM systems for enterprise-grade incident response

Event monitoring turns your data into real insights that lead to real action. This can be extremely beneficial whether you’re auditing access patterns or investigating potential threats.

Data Detect scans your organization for sensitive data (such as personal identifiers or financial details) and flags any risky or non-compliant content.

Data Detect gives you the ability to:

• Identify personal information and financial data like credit card, Social Security numbers, and national IDs
• Classify sensitive data automatically
• Receive timely notifications via email when scan results are ready
• Build dashboards to track detection trends and risks
• Stay up to date with global privacy laws like GDPR and CCPA

If you’re preparing for an audit or just want a better handle on what data lives in your cloud, Shield Data Detect makes it easy to monitor, classify, and protect it all. Check out the Data Detect Demo to see how it works.

Implementing Shield isn’t as simple as flipping a switch. It’s all about configuring your security controls to match your business goals and compliance needs. With the right steps (and a few best practices), you can roll out Shield smoothly while minimizing disruption and maximizing protection.

If you’re unsure where to start, the Shield Learning Map is a great resource for understanding the technical ins and outs of each feature. But here’s a practical overview to get you started.

Start by scanning your existing data to understand what sensitive information exists in your org that you may not know about yet. Data Detect gives you immediate visibility into personally identifiable information (PII), financial records, and other regulated data types so you can classify and protect them appropriately.

To configure Data Detect effectively:

• Run a full scan of records across your Salesforce environment to find PII, financial data, and other sensitive content. This includes standard and custom objects like contacts, cases, and more.
• Customize detection rules to focus on the data types most relevant to your business. This could be credit card numbers, Social Security numbers, employee IDs, email addresses, or health information, depending on your industry.
• Receive email notifications once your scans are complete.
• Use the “Sensitive Data” report to go deeper into flagged records. Doing so can help you assess exposure and prioritize next steps.

This step lays the foundation for smarter encryption and auditing decisions down the line.

Once you know where your sensitive data lives, it’s time to lock it down. Shield Platform Encryption helps you do that at the field, file, and attachment level while still supporting your top priority workflows.

Here’s how to roll it out:

• Enable Platform Encryption in Setup or via the new Shield experience. You’ll need the appropriate permissions and licenses to configure encryption policies.
• Choose which fields and attachments to encrypt, starting with the highest-risk data. Both standard and custom fields are supported.
• Decide between Salesforce-managed keys for simplicity or various BYOK (Bring your own key) options for even more control over key generation and rotation.
• Apply encryption policies across different layers. This includes data at rest in Salesforce databases and indexed data for search.
• Use Platform Encryption Analyzer to evaluate the impact on list views, filters, search, and reports, since encrypted fields may have limitations in certain use cases.
• Test extensively in a sandbox to verify that encrypted fields don’t disrupt critical workflows or automations.

Remember: encryption is powerful, but depending on the options you choose, it’s not always invisible. It’s important that you take time to assess how it interacts with existing processes before going live.

Now that your data is encrypted, you’ll want to track how it changes. Field audit trail helps you maintain a transparent, long-term view of your data history, which is perfect for compliance and internal investigations.

To get started:

• Go to Field Audit Trail settings in Setup and enable the feature for the relevant objects in your Salesforce environment.
• Select the fields to track, such as salary data, health details, account status, or any other sensitive attributes tied to regulatory compliance.
• Set your retention period. You can choose anywhere from one to ten years depending on your legal obligations and audit cycles.
• Apply object-specific retention policies, so different record types can follow different data governance rules.
• Use the Field History report to view historical changes. This report allows filtering by user, timestamp, or record to support audits or investigations.
• Test tracking in a sandbox environment to make sure the right fields are covered and that retention policies are working as expected.

A well-configured audit trail can save hours of work during reviews, but it also helps demonstrate accountability when it matters most.

The final step is enabling full visibility into user behavior with event monitoring. This gives you a window into how users and systems are interacting with your data. This allows you to spot issues early and respond quickly.

To configure event monitoring:

• Open the Event Monitoring settings in Setup. Make sure your team has access to download event log files and configure analytics.
• Select which events to monitor, including logins, report exports, API usage, record views, and other high-sensitivity actions.
• Create alerts and thresholds for activities that might indicate data misuse (like bulk downloads or off-hours access from new IPs).
• Leverage the Event Monitoring Analytics App to visualize patterns, detect anomalies, and quickly investigate incidents.
• Export logs to third-party SIEM systems to centralize monitoring with your broader IT security stack.
• Build custom dashboards to track activity across teams, geographies, or systems and continuously improve your risk posture.

When done right, event monitoring doesn’t just show you what happened — it gives you the context to act on it.

When your business runs on trust, protecting sensitive data is just as essential as delivering great customer experiences. It’s the backbone of long-term loyalty and operational integrity. Salesforce Shield gives you the tools to go beyond standard security measures, helping you monitor access and stay compliant with evolving regulations.

And because Shield is built right into the Agentforce 360 Platform, it works seamlessly with the tools you already use to build apps and grow your business. There’s no need for costly add-ons or disconnected systems since it’s security that scales with you.

By using Shield, you can move from reactive to proactive protection. Instead of scrambling during audits or breach investigations, you’ll have clear logs and controls already in place. That means fewer surprises, faster investigations, and stronger trust with customers. When you are ready to scale into new regions or secure data for regulated industries, Shield brings enterprise-grade security within reach.

Ready to strengthen your data protection strategy? Learn more about the Agentforce 360 Platform.