🚨 Attention Teams: 15 Things You Should Never Store in Jira (Security Checklist)

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Jira is a place where teams coordinate work, exchange updates, and resolve problems. Nevertheless, sensitive information should not be stored in Jira. Still, it happens quite often. 

Imagine the situation: one of the support engineers pasted actual customer login information in a Jira ticket in an attempt to resolve a bug. The ticket was visible to most team members, was included in the reports, and credentials remained in the history even after the ticket was closed.

Such situations take place when, for example, database files are uploaded by the developers or customer information is pasted by support teams.

As soon as sensitive data enters Jira, it may be seen in export, backup, and history.

That is why each team should understand what should not be stored in Jira. 🔒

Security Checklist: What Should Never Be Stored in Jira

Use this checklist to quickly review whether sensitive data may appear in Jira work items, comments, or attachments.

#	Type of sensitive data	Why it shouldn’t be stored in Jira
☐ 1	Passwords	Passwords shared in Jira tickets may remain in the history, notifications, and backups even after deletion.
☐ 2	API Keys & Access Tokens	They can give access to systems, apps, or services if exposed.
☐ 3	Private Keys	They allow server access and should never be visible in project management tools.
☐ 4	Database Credentials	Database usernames and passwords may reveal critical infrastructure.
☐ 5	Personally Identifiable Information (PII)	Data such as phone numbers, addresses, or ID numbers may cause privacy and compliance risks.
☐ 6	Customer Login Credentials	During troubleshooting, there is a risk of accidentally sharing customer usernames or passwords, which can put accounts at risk.
☐ 7	Credit Card or Payment Information	It is important to keep payment details only in secure payment systems.
☐ 8	Bank Account Details	Jira tickets should never contain banking information, as it is extremely sensitive.
☐ 9	Confidential Business Documents	Financial reports, contracts, or strategic plans should be stored in secure document tools.
☐ 10	Employee Personal Information	Jira shouldn’t store HR information like salaries or personal contacts.
☐ 11	Security Vulnerability Details	Information about system weaknesses or security gaps shouldn’t be openly stored in Jira tickets, as it may help attackers exploit them.
☐ 12	Internal Infrastructure Information	Internal systems can be disclosed through server IP addresses, architecture diagrams, and environment configs.
☐ 13	Cloud Platform Credentials	Service access keys, such as AWS keys, enable attackers to gain access to infrastructure.
☐ 14	Screenshots with Sensitive Information	Screenshots may accidentally reveal emails, credentials, internal tools, or personal data visible on the screen.
☐ 15	System Logs Containing Sensitive Data	Logs may include tokens, user IDs, IP addresses, or other confidential details.

✅ Tip: Even if sensitive data is removed from Jira work item, it may still remain in Jira history, exports, or backups, which makes regular security checks important. 🔍

How to Detect Sensitive Data in Jira

To ensure security and compliance, the teams have to review Jira regularly to identify risky data.

Recommended practices:

• Periodic auditing of work item Jira history.
• Review of attachments and comments in Jira.
• Tracking of deleted work items.
• Export Jira work item historical data to perform compliance checks.

Nevertheless, this isn’t always easy to do using Jira native features since historical data isn’t easily visible. This is where the specialized apps like Issue History for Jira (Work Item History) may help.

Improve Visibility with Issue History for Jira (Work Item History) App

Issue History for Jira (Work Item History) is frequently used by teams that require greater visibility into Jira activity. Let’s explore the key capabilities of this app. 

Full Work Item Change Tracking

The app allows to monitor all the changes made to Jira work items, including:

• Field changes
• Status transitions
• Assignee updates
• Comment edits
• Deleted work items

This assists teams in restoring information about who made what and when.

Export Jira History for Audits

Compliance and security teams can easily export historical data in Excel or PDF formats for:

• Internal investigations
• Security reviews
• Regulatory audits

Exports help maintain a clear evidence trail of Jira work item changes.

Security Scanner View

Security Scanner View is one of the most powerful features of Issue History for Jira (Work Item History) app.

It enables the detection of possible risks and sensitive data exposure in Jira work items and their history, including:

• Passwords and passphrases
• Login credentials
• Credit card numbers
• Social Security Numbers
• AWS access keys and secret keys
• API keys and OAuth tokens
• Email addresses and phone numbers
• IP addresses
• Usernames and logins
• Physical addresses and postal codes

Rather than go through thousands of work items manually, teams are able to find potential instances of data leaks within a short period.

➡️ Explore Issue History for Jira (Work Item History) on the Atlassian Marketplace and see how it can improve transparency and security in your Jira projects.

Summing Up

Sensitive data stored in Jira can pose significant security and compliance risks. Although the data can be removed later, it can still be present in the history of work items or backups.

With this checklist and without sharing sensitive data in tickets, comments, and attachments, the teams are likely to minimize the risk of data leaks and ensure their Jira environment is safer. Frequent check-ups and the right monitoring also assist in making sure that confidential information doesn’t find its way into the wrong hands by mistake. 🔒