Secure data

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Secure data

    Data security is a critical aspect of application development on the ServiceNow AI Platform. ServiceNow simplifies this by automatically configuring access controls for tables based on roles during creation, ensuring that only authorized users can read, create, write, or delete data. Properly configuring access control rules at both table and column levels is essential for protecting sensitive information and complying with platform subscription models.

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    Key Features

    • Access Control Lists (ACLs): Combine multiple access controls to define fine-grained security rules for tables, UI pages, property pages, and other content.
    • Role-based Access: Only users assigned appropriate roles can access or modify table data, with automatic configuration during table setup.
    • Before-query Business Rules: These run prior to database queries and control read access at the record level without showing filtered records as restricted, unlike ACLs. They should be used sparingly and do not replace ACLs.
    • Performance Considerations: Minimize GlideRecord queries in access control scripts to avoid negative impacts on performance.
    • Subscription Model Impact: Access to tables counts towards subscription limits, so ACLs should be used to restrict table access appropriately to control costs.
    • Encryption: The platform offers encryption at the application, database, and hardware tiers to enhance data protection.

    Key Outcomes

    • Ensures that only authorized users can access or modify sensitive data, maintaining compliance and security best practices.
    • Helps optimize application performance by reducing inefficient queries in access controls.
    • Supports subscription cost management by accurately restricting user access to necessary tables only.
    • Provides layered data protection with encryption options across multiple tiers.
    • Encourages early implementation of security configurations to avoid rework and integration issues later in the application development process.

    Data security is one of the most important and overlooked aspects of creating an application. ServiceNow automatically configures access control for a new or selected role during the table creation process. Only users with the role can access the table to read, create, write, and delete.

    Use access control rules to configure table and column-level security in the ServiceNow AI Platform. To properly configure access to an application, developers should understand how access controls work and the order in which access controls are evaluated. Apply multiple access controls that together make an Access Control List (ACL).

    Self-Paced Training: Securing Applications

    Documentation: Access control list rules

    When considering security:
    • Protect tables, UI pages, property pages, and other content with the appropriate access controls and roles.
    • Limit the use of GlideRecord queries in access control scripts. GlideRecord queries can affect performance.
    Beginning with the Orlando Platform Subscription model, customers are charged by how many tables a user can access, regardless of whether the user does access the table. Configure ACLs to restrict access to a table to ensure that only the users that need access to a table can access the table.
    Note:
    Consider making any auto-populated fields read only. If the system is populating the data, a user should not be able to.

    Alternately, secure data on the ServiceNow AI Platform with before-query Business Rules. Before-query Business Rules run before the database query and are limited to controlling read access to a record. Only use before-query Business Rules when necessary. Some considerations when deciding to use Access Controls or before-query Business Rules:

    • GlideRecord queries will bypass read access controls on a table and will be restricted by before-query Business Rules on a table.
    • When access controls restrict read access to records in a list, ServiceNow shows a message saying that access has been restricted for the records. With before-query Business Rules, the number of records in the list total matches the number of records shown to the user. The user receives no indication that some records have been hidden from the list.
    Review the user query Business Rule on the User [sys_user] table for reference.
    Note:
    Before-query Business Rules do not take the place of ACLs. Denying users access to a table via before-query Business Rule will still count the table against the subscription model. Use Access Controls to prevent the table from being counted for the users in the Platform Subscription model.

    Encryption

    The ServiceNow AI Platform also provides various encryption solutions at the application tier, database tier, and hardware tier. Learn more in the Data Encryption Whitepaper.
    Note:
    Set up security before configuring any interfaces or business logic. Since security affects the data available to interfaces and business logic, waiting until the end of the application build process may cause rework and issues.