How does Spanning Backup for Salesforce handle encrypted data?

If there are encrypted fields in your Salesforce account, there are several things to note regarding Spanning Backup for Salesforce:

1. Spanning accesses the Salesforce data in your account through a single specified API user (see this Knowledge Base article for more information on how to select the API user).  If the selected user has the ability to view encrypted data in the Salesforce org, then Spanning will back up all encrypted data successfully.  However, if the selected user does not the ability to view encrypted data when Spanning tries to back up the encrypted data, it will be backed up incorrectly (it will be masked).  If this backed up data is then restored back into the active Salesforce account, it will be restored incorrectly (masked).  To enable this setting, log in to your Salesforce account as the admin user, and then go to Setup > Manage Users > Profiles > (Profile that the desired API user has) > General User Permissions > View Encrypted Data:



Note - if the checkbox for 'View Encrypted Data' is not editable, then you are likely using the default System Administrator profile, and you will need to either select a different profile or clone the System Administrator profile, edit the cloned profile to enable this setting, and then assign the desired API user this cloned profile.

2. If the data is being backed up by a user with 'View Encrypted Data' enabled, but a user without this setting enabled initiates an on-page single record restore, the user will restore masked data back into the account.

3. Additionally, this scenario could cause a potential security issue because the user without the 'View Encrypted Data' setting enabled will be able to see the unencrypted data in the difference viewer within the Spanning UI.  As a result, please make sure that the appropriate users in your org have access to Spanning Backup if you have the 'View Encrypted Data' setting enabled, so only the appropriate users will be able to view / restore encrypted data.

If you have any additional questions, please contact support@spanning.com.