New Salesforce Marketing Cloud release – Multi Factor Authentication Introduced

Again it’s that time of the year – Salesforce Marketing Cloud has released new updates. Going forward, the Avaus team will try to read these release notes and discuss with affected clients and try to cherry-pick our favourite new features and changes. 

The July release did contain some exciting news. Still, considering the new work climate in the light of the Corona pandemic and the results that this has had on the workforce using Salesforce as a tool, the focus for today will be on the new security measures – Multi-Factor Authentication.

Working in the new normal with employees using devices connected on insecure networks at home, in open spaces or from summer cabins means that security needs are at an all-time high while at the same time being harder for internal IT departments to control. The situation does not look as if it will change shortly or in some cases at all, with companies such as Google and Apple implementing permanent Work From Home alternatives. In light of this situation, the release of the multi-factor authentication (MFA) means an added level of security for your Salesforce products and safety for your customer data. 

Marketing Cloud rolled out support for MFA in August 2020 as part of the July Marketing Cloud release. Salesforce and Avaus strongly recommend all Marketing Cloud customers to implement MFA for their tenants as soon as possible, even if you use Single Sign-On (SSO). 

Salesforce suggests the following three authentication factors:

• The Salesforce Authenticator mobile app
• Security keys that support U2F or WebAuthn, such as Yubico’s YubiKey or Google’s Titan Security Key
• Time-based one-time passcodes (TOTP) authentication apps, like Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, or Authy

Avaus, in turn, suggests using the Salesforce Authenticator mobile app due to its ease of use and the ease with which multiple accounts can be handled using just one app. 

Does your company already have extra security measures in place to protect your customer data in the new normal? Do you need help making sure your Salesforce data is protected and usable? Feel free to reach out to us at Avaus or me directly.