PDF documents are commonly being used by the Market Research Companies to share all kinds of information, including that of confidential nature. So, in order to ensure that your report does not get accessed or modified by someone other than the recipient, it is essential to provide them with robust security. Read more to understand how you can safeguard and secure your pdf reports…
Over the years, Portable Document Formats, or in short PDF, have become the file of choice for many market research companies owing to its versatility, reliability and easy to operate and share at the same time. Besides, the administration of PDF files also includes a password application which means that the companies are able to provide safety and security to their PDF reports while sharing or transferring it to their clients. In short, by adding this feature to the PDF file, companies are able to limit viewing, editing, printing, and other options to only specified users.
However, nowadays there are numerous PDF password hackers being used to bypass the passwords to unlock the PDF files to get unauthorized access of the confidential reports shared. In this article, we are going to take you through on how to password protect a PDF, so that your file cannot be accessed and the contents cannot be viewed by unauthorized persons.
1) PDF should be digitally signed & encrypted with the private key
A digital signature in a PDF is kind of equivalent of an ink signature by a person on a paper document, but then it is much more secure than the latter, and guarantees the following:-
- Authenticity of the document content
- The authenticity of the signer (the person who has sent)
- The document is in its final form and has not been modified or tampered by any unknown person.
Besides, use certificates to encrypt documents, and to verify a digital signature. This is because when you secure a PDF using a certificate then it ensures that only the intended recipient can view the research report. With this you are able to specify the recipients and define the file access level for each recipient or group.
Further, you can also encrypt your pdf report with a private key; this simply means that you can send your report to your client with a private key access. Unless he has the credentials of the key, he or no one else can open it.
2) Use adobe professional pdf
You can also use adobe professional pdf when sharing sensitive or confidential reports by locking it with a password which will protect it from getting unauthorized access apart from the client who receives it as they have to enter the password before they can open or view them. This way you can restrict viewing, editing or printing with a password or encrypt the entire PDF with a password. Using adobe professional pdf ensures your report files are more secured, and would not be opened by anyone intentionally or unintentionally.
Moreover, you can also apply protections to PDFs with the “publish sensitive information” action in Acrobat Pro. You can redact, password protect a PDF, and save your file with edit and copy restrictions applied automatically.
3) Share the research reports via DRM
Apart from the above mentioned, a different but a robust approach which you can adopt for protecting your confidential PDF research reports is by way of using of a Digital Rights Management (DRM) system which basically uses encryption and licensing controls. The software ensures your PDF documents are encrypted and protected against unauthorized use/misuse without the use of passwords.
In short, DRM helps in securely transfer document decryption keys to your client’s (the authorized user) devices, and then putting them away those in an encrypted key hub that is locked to the device.
Once your pdf research report is DRM protected, then it cannot be shared or copied at all. You totally control the copyright of your PDF file. Further, DRM systems also have an additional advantage over other PDF restrictions which is that, the controls cannot be easily withdrawn as they are constantly enforced by the application.
If you are interested in knowing more about how DRM can help in safeguarding your pdf formatted research reports, then comment below or alternatively you can reach to us by mailing your enquiry or requirement at tarun@amevatech.com
