SEMrush Security Info

Data centers

SEMrush stores its service data at the best data centers in the United States. We use Amazon Web Service, Google Cloud Platform, and Equinix

Data center compliance

All data centers have all relevant best practice compliance certificates.

• Learn more about compliance at AWS
• Learn more about compliance at GCP
• Learn more about compliance at Equinix

Physical security of data centers

Physical security of data centers is ensured through a number of measures, including strict control of personnel access to the data center premises, as well as access control of third parties.Also, access to data centers is regularly reviewed, activities and incidents are monitored on a 24/7 basis, CCTV recordings of physical access points to server rooms are provided, and electronic intrusion detection systems are in place.

Disaster recovery

Data centers manage climate and temperature to prevent overheating. They are equipped with automatic fire detection and suppression systems, and water leaks detection systems. In addition, electrical and mechanical equipment are monitored. All data centers are redundant and maintainable 24/7.

Uptime of the service

The infrastructure providers use commercially reasonable efforts to ensure a minimum of 99.8% uptime. The providers maintain a minimum of N+1 redundancy to power, network, and HVAC services.

Failover protection

Backup and replication strategies are designed to ensure redundancy and failover protections during a significant processing failure. SEMrush data is backed up to multiple durable data stores and replicated across multiple Availability Zones.

Redundancy

Where feasible, production databases are designed to replicate data between no fewer than one primary and one secondary database. All databases are backed up and maintained using industry-standard methods at a minimum.

Location

Since SEMrush conducts its business around the world, we have several offices in different parts of the world. Our offices are located in four countries on two continents (USA, Russia, Czech Republic and Republic of Cyprus). Due to the distribution of offices, we take security very seriously.

Physical security of offices

All our offices are equipped with video surveillance and intrusion detection systems. Access to all office spaces is regulated by an access control system, and is guaranteed only to employees or visitors who have registered or temporary access cards. All visitors must be accompanied by responsible employees.

Fire protection

Each office meets all fire safety requirements and is equipped with a fire alarm and fire extinguishing systems.

Vetting employees before hiring

We prioritize information security when our employees process users’ data, so for all critical positions, we ensure that all staff members have been fully vetted before hiring . Furthermore, all employees go through several interview stages with our HR specialists.

Confidentiality agreement

All our employees sign a non-disclosure agreement before starting work.

Security awareness

We provide security awareness training for all new employees, as well as annually for all employees. Training is carried out both through an electronic platform, and materials and posters displayed at all offices.

Developers training

We provide training for our product developers in accordance with OWASP best practice for secure programming. Every year , we hold the Capture the Flag (CTF) challenge for all developers.

Data in transit

SEMrush makes HTTPS encryption (also referred to as SSL or TLS) available on every one of its login interfaces. SEMrush HTTPS implementation uses industry-standard algorithms and certificates.

Data at rest

Stored information is protected by strong encryption. Data centers use AES-256 encryption for secure data storage, while employee endpoints are controlled using the MDM system. We use strong encryption methods to securely store information on our endpoints.

Network access

Network access control mechanisms are designed to prevent network traffic that uses unauthorized protocols from reaching the Services infrastructure. The technical measures implemented differ between infrastructure providers, and include Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) implementations, security group assignment, and traditional firewall rules.

Separate environments

Staging, testing, and development environments are logically separated from each other. No personal or service data is used in testing or development environments.

Quality assurance

Our Quality Assurance staff are responsible for continuous quality testing of our product. They also conduct basic security testing.

Code review

The Security team reviews parts of code stored in SEMrush source code repositories, checking for coding best practice and identifiable software flaws.

Penetration tests

SEMrush conducts penetration tests every six months. The object of the penetration tests is to identify and resolve foreseeable attack vectors and potential abuse scenarios. In addition, the Security team conducts partial penetration tests of new features every week.

Bug Bounty program

A Bug Bounty program invites and incentivizes independent security researchers to ethically discover and disclose security flaws. SEMrush has implemented a Bug Bounty program in an effort to widen the available opportunities to engage with the security community and improve the service’s defenses against sophisticated attacks.

External threats protection

SEMrush has implemented a Web Application Firewall (WAF) solution to protect internet-accessible applications. The WAF is designed to identify and prevent attacks against publicly-available network services.

Authentication options

Single sign-on: We have integration with SSO SAML. SSO can be enabled at any time by contacting product support.
Two-factor authentication: Our product supports two-factor authentication. It can be easily enabled to make accounts more secure.

Interaction with contractors

In order to provide the service in accordance with DPA, SEMrush maintains contractual relationships with vendors. SEMrush relies on contractual agreements, privacy policies, and vendor compliance procedures in order to protect any data processed or stored by these vendors.

Supplier security verification

We have a security verification process for each supplier. This process is carried out using a mathematical model for calculating the cybersecurity rating (CSR).

GDPR and CCPA

Our company is GDPR compliant. In our daily activities with personal data, we follow the letter of the law. To protect personal data, we have enacted the following internal and external policies: General Data Protection Policy, privacy policy, Subject Access Request policy, employee procedures for handling SARs, data breach procedures, and other documents required by legislation.

Personal data retention

Users’ personal data is deleted once no longer necessary for the stated purposes. However, we must sometimes continue to store user data until the retention periods and deadlines set by the legislator or supervisory authorities expire. We may also retain user data until the statutory limitation periods have expired, provided that this is necessary for the establishment, exercise, or defense of legal claims.

System logging

SEMrush has designed its infrastructure to log extensive information about system behavior, traffic received, system authentication, and other application requests. Internal systems aggregate log data and alert appropriate employees of malicious, unintended, or anomalous activities. SEMrush personnel, including security, are responsive to known incidents.

Incident response

SEMrush maintains a record of known security incidents that includes description, dates and times of relevant activities, and incident disposition. Suspected and confirmed security incidents are investigated by security, operations, and support personnel; and appropriate resolution steps are identified and documented. For any confirmed incidents, SEMrush takes appropriate steps to minimize user damage and unauthorized disclosure, and to prevent future incidents.

Notification in case of incident

If SEMrush becomes aware of unlawful access to data stored within its services, we notify the affected users of the incident, provide a description of the steps that are being taken to resolve the incident, and provide status updates to the user, as necessary.

Security policies and procedures

We have developed policies that are communicated annually to all staff. We also have specific policies that are communicated to the personnel they affect. Policies cover the main areas of information security.

PCI DSS compliance

We have fully implemented and support all processes related to PCI DSS compliance. Once a year, we confirm our compliance by passing an independent QSA audit. As a result, we have achieved a PCI DSS Level 1 certificate. In addition, we have expanded the range of applicability of certain requirements of this standard to the entire company, including training for all employees, training for developers, data transfer and storage. A valid PCI DSS certificate can be found here.