Your Salesforce Is Only as Safe as Its Setup: Lessons from the Air France and KLM Data Breach

When news broke about the Air France and KLM data breach, many assumed the problem was with core systems like Salesforce.

It wasn’t. The breach happened through a third-party customer service platform, not Salesforce itself. But that’s exactly why it’s a wake-up call the security of your CRM depends not only on Salesforce, but also on every tool connected to it.

For any business, those integrations can be the silent entry points attackers look for. At CloudPrism, we make sure nothing slips through.

What Really Happened

• Air France and KLM discovered unusual activity on an external platform used by their contact centers.

• The compromised data included names, email addresses, phone numbers, Flying Blue membership IDs and tiers, and subject lines from support emails.

• Importantly, sensitive information—passwords, credit card details, travel itineraries, passports, and actual loyalty mile balances—remained secure.

• Regulators were informed: KLM to the Dutch Data Protection Authority and Air France to France’s CNIL. Affected customers were alerted with phishing warnings.

• This isn’t an isolated event. Attackers groups are increasingly targeting third-party integrations, not just platforms like Salesforce directly.

Why This Matters to Salesforce Users

• You don’t need Salesforce to fail for your data to be at risk. Weak external systems create the danger.

• Exposed data like names and loyalty numbers lets attackers craft highly believable phishing or social-engineering attacks

• As this breach highlights, the ecosystem around your CRM can be just as vulnerable as your doc entries or contact fields.

How CloudPrism Keeps Salesforce Secure

1. Integration Vetting and Hardening

Before any app or service connects to Salesforce, we audit it for security posture.

We enforce least-privilege access, so each integration only sees the data it absolutely needs nothing more.

2. Data Access Governance

We apply role-based permissions and field-level security to ensure users only see the data relevant to their work.

Old accounts and unused API keys are regularly identified and removed.

3. Continuous Monitoring

With tools like Salesforce Shield and Event Monitoring, we watch for unusual data exports, API spikes, or logins from suspicious locations and act before they become threats.

4. Strong Authentication

We enforce multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all users, including integration accounts.

High-sensitivity access points are protected with IP whitelisting.

5. Regular Security Reviews

Every quarter, we run penetration tests to uncover vulnerabilities.

New integrations go through sandbox testing before they ever touch production.

What You Can Act On Right Now

• Audit who and what can access your Salesforce right now.

• Get real-time monitoring switched on or check what anomalies your logs may already reveal.

• Enforce MFA across your org and restrict administrative access to trusted networks.

• Use sandbox testing for everything new before it hits production.

• Build a security routine: reviews, testing, training, rinse, repeat.

Final Word

Air France and KLM didn’t lose control of Salesforce. They lost control of the system around it. That’s where most real-world risk lives.

CloudPrism fills those gaps so your Salesforce remains the engine of your growth not the vulnerability that headlines your breach. If you want to see how we build security into every layer, let’s talk.