Salesforce, Salesforce Admin, Security
11 May 2026
Salesforce Summer ’26 continues a broader trend that has been building over the last several releases; tighter controls around identity, integrations, email security, and platform trust.
This is not a release defined by dramatic new security tooling. Instead, there is a focus on reducing reliance on older authentication methods, legacy URLs, permissive configurations, and loosely governed integrations.
For organisations that actively use and evolve their Salesforce platform, this matters. Not because Summer ’26 introduces immediate disruption for every org, but because it continues to narrow the gap between “recommended” and “required” security practice.
The good news is that most of the changes are manageable when addressed proactively. The risk tends to emerge when older integrations, inherited configurations, or forgotten identity settings have been left untouched for several years; or what C24 calls the small gaps.
Below, we break the release into two simple categories (Salesforce summary and full release note download can be found here):
Salesforce Summer ’26 continues Salesforce’s broader push towards:
Most organisations will not require major remediation immediately, but environments that are not actively managed which have older integrations, legacy authentication flows, or limited governance visibility should review their setup proactively.
One of the most important practical changes in Summer ’26 is Salesforce’s continued move away from legacy hostnames and instance-based URLs. Salesforce explicitly highlights the need to switch integrations to unique branded web addresses.
In practical terms, this means organisations should review:
Historically, many integrations were configured against instance-specific URLs such as:
na1.salesforce.com
eu11.salesforce.com
Salesforce increasingly expects organisations to use My Domain URLs instead.
For many businesses, this is a relatively straightforward remediation exercise. The challenge is usually visibility rather than complexity. Older integrations are often undocumented, business-critical, and quietly running in the background.
If your Salesforce environment has evolved over several years, this review is worth prioritising before the change becomes enforcement-led rather than advisory.
Identity architecture continues to tighten across the Salesforce ecosystem. Summer ’26 builds on earlier release changes around SAML, connected applications, authentication policies, and external client applications.
This is particularly relevant for organisations using:
Salesforce is steadily reducing tolerance for older authentication models and legacy configuration patterns.
That does not mean every organisation needs to redesign its identity estate immediately. It does mean this is no longer an area that should be treated as “set and forget.”
At minimum, organisations should:
This is especially important for organisations with multiple admins, external partners, or historical technical debt inside the org.
Email trust and sender verification continues to become more tightly enforced across Salesforce releases.
Spring ’26 introduced mandatory verification requirements for active sending domains, with clarification that this applies to system-generated emails as well.
That work now sits alongside broader deliverability and domain trust initiatives already introduced in previous releases, including DKIM-related changes discussed in our previous article.
For organisations actively sending workflow emails, customer notifications, Experience Cloud emails, support emails, password resets, and marketing emails this is no longer optional housekeeping. At a minimum, organisations should confirm:
The operational impact here is straightforward: Salesforce wants stronger proof that organisations genuinely own and control the domains they send from.
Salesforce has continued tightening governance around connected apps and external integrations over several releases. Summer ’26 reinforces that direction again.
For many organisations, connected apps accumulate quietly over time:
Often, nobody revisits them after implementation. This release is a good prompt to review:
This is particularly important as more AI-enabled tools begin requesting access into Salesforce environments.
Salesforce continues to invest heavily in native monitoring, threat visibility, and security telemetry. Summer ’25 and Summer ’26 both expanded areas including:
Most SMEs do not need to operationalise every security feature immediately. However, organisations should understand that Salesforce is increasingly moving toward:
In practical terms, security posture inside Salesforce is becoming more measurable and more auditable.
Summer ’26 introduces general availability for malware scanning of Salesforce Files. This is worth monitoring if you organisation uses:
The feature reflects a wider industry expectation that collaboration platforms actively inspect uploaded content rather than simply store it.
For many organisations this will be a welcome enhancement, particularly where external users interact with the platform.
Salesforce continues positioning resilience and recoverability as a larger operational concern rather than purely an enterprise compliance topic.
Recent releases have expanded:
For many SMEs, this is less about immediate action and more about maturity planning.
Historically, smaller organisations often relied on the assumption that SaaS platforms inherently covered backup and disaster recovery requirements. The reality is usually more nuanced, particularly around:
This is an area likely to become more commercially important over the next 12–24 months.
The broader message from Summer ’26 is clear, Salesforce is continuing to reduce tolerance for:
At the same time, the platform is becoming more proactive in:
For organisations actively invested in Salesforce, this should not be viewed negatively. In most cases, these are sensible maturity improvements that align Salesforce more closely with modern security expectations.
The important point is timing.
The organisations that experience disruption are rarely the ones actively reviewing their platform. Problems usually emerge where integrations, authentication models, or security settings have quietly aged in place for years without governance or ownership.
Summer ’26 is therefore less about panic and more about visibility. Understanding what exists inside your Salesforce estate, what still needs to exist, and whether older assumptions about trust and access are still appropriate.
Many of the changes introduced across recent Salesforce releases are incremental rather than dramatic, which makes them easy to overlook until they begin affecting integrations, authentication, or operational workflows.
If you are unsure whether your organisation may be affected by:
…a focused review can usually identify issues quickly before they become disruptive.
Cognition24 works with organisations to review Salesforce environments, assess operational risk, and help modernise security, identity, and integration architecture without unnecessary complexity or rework.
If you would like a pragmatic second opinion on your current setup, get in touch.
Alternatively, if you would prefer to start with a lighter-touch assessment, you can complete our free Salesforce Security Health Check questionnaire to receive an immediate operational overview of your current security posture and areas worth reviewing next.
These changes are most relevant for organisations that:
– operate multiple integrations or middleware platforms
– use older authentication or SSO configurations
– actively send emails from Salesforce
– maintain complex connected app environments
– have inherited legacy Salesforce configurations over several years
Most organisations will not require emergency remediation. However, Salesforce customers should proactively review integrations, authentication methods, email domain verification, and connected app governance to avoid future operational disruption.
Key areas include:
– identity and authentication governance
– legacy URL migration
– connected app oversight
– email domain verification
– malware scanning
– operational security visibility
Not immediately in most cases. However, Salesforce is continuing to reduce reliance on legacy URLs, older authentication models, and permissive trust configurations, which may affect older integrations over time.
Most organisations should begin by reviewing:
– My Domain usage
– connected apps
– SSO configuration
– email verification settings
– external integrations
– legacy authentication flows
Many of these changes affect SMEs as much as enterprise organisations, particularly where integrations, third-party tools, or external authentication providers are being used.
Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
