Payroll data has become a significant security concern for businesses, with cyberattacks, payroll fraud and malicious employees all posing risks to sensitive company information.
Studies into stolen data reveal that 80% of business data breaches involve HR and payroll files.
According to Bruce van Wyk, CEO of Deel Local Payroll, many companies remain vulnerable because their payroll information is scattered across different systems, making it difficult to monitor and control.
“When payroll data is spread across several places, like spreadsheets, emails, and different computers, it’s easy to copy and steal. The company can’t track or manage that data. They won’t know if someone steals that information, and the lack of visibility also makes payroll fraud easier.”
Cloud-native payroll platforms offer businesses an alternative by bringing information together into a single, controlled data environment.
Bringing payroll data into one place
Payroll has traditionally been one of the most demanding administrative functions in a business, with information often spread across multiple systems.
The development of cloud-native platforms has introduced a different approach through what is known as a single source of truth.
The concept emerged in the late 20th century as experts recognised the benefits of centralising clean and organised data with controlled access. The initial focus was on data warehouses, before cloud computing and software platforms expanded the approach.
“A platform is like a gated community for a family of specialised apps, workflows, and data storage,” says Van Wyk. “It securely shares information between different parts of the platform. For example, on our platform, the payroll engine securely shares payslips directly with employees through a self-service WhatsApp bot. Those are three different systems, but they work together as one, drawing from the same data source. You can also connect other business apps to this system. For example, we have customers who connect their finance software with the data from their payroll system.”
A cloud-native, multi-tenant platform operates on cloud infrastructure, allowing users to access it through a web portal rather than installing software on individual devices.
Everyone within an organisation uses the same software version, while data is stored in secure cloud storage that supports monitoring and backups.
The platform vendor maintains and upgrades the system while providing separate, ring-fenced and even branded versions to different clients.
Individual users are then given access to the portals and forms relevant to their roles.
Managers, for example, are able to record timesheets and leave approvals directly, adding information to the same data pool used by payroll, HR and departments such as finance.
How cloud platforms strengthen payroll security
Bringing payroll information into one platform provides businesses with greater control over who accesses their data and what happens to it.
Reputable platform vendors invest in security measures including 256-bit encryption and certifications such as ISO 27001:2022, the international standard for information security management systems.
Role-based access allows companies to define what individual employees are permitted to see and use, helping prevent unnecessary access to sensitive information.
A centralised platform also creates audit trails that record data movements and access.
Clients receive feature and security updates from the platform vendor, while businesses retain visibility over their information and are able to archive it for backups, move it to other systems or share it through API connectors.
Approval workflows add another layer of control by requiring supervisor or management approval before certain data is edited or other changes are made.
Platforms also support infrastructure monitoring, automated alerts and incident response procedures with SLA-backed escalation paths.
Visibility makes payroll easier to protect
The underlying advantage is having a single source of payroll data rather than sensitive information distributed across spreadsheets, emails, devices and disconnected systems.
This provides businesses with greater visibility over their data while strengthening their ability to monitor access and identify activity within the payroll environment.
“When all your information is scattered in different places, it makes you less productive and much harder to keep all that information safe,” says Van Wyk. “But keep it in one binder, and all that changes. A cloud-native platform does the same thing, but at a much larger scale and focused on crucial business functions. By creating a single data source through a cloud platform, you get many productivity and security advantages.”
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