Ever since the invention of writing, people have tried to protect their secret knowledge, which is recorded on material media – stone, papyrus or paper. In order to prevent secret information from being revealed by enemies or simply “unworthy” representatives of society, mankind has come up with various ways of encrypting the text. The oldest encryption method is rightly considered to be a cryptogram.
Gradually, new, more advanced methods of protecting paper documents were developed. With the advent of computers and digital media, a new task has arisen for mankind – how to protect electronic documents from unauthorized distribution, duplication and alteration?
When Is Document Security Required?
Most often, working documents in DOC and PDF format need to be protected from unauthorized access. Various scientific organizations, think tanks, pharmaceutical companies and other companies conducting serious research must take care to maintain the accuracy and authenticity of their documentation. It is also important for small, medium and large companies to protect documents from being copied or replaced – this way you can avoid damage or unauthorized changes to the document and information leakage. Protection of electronic documents can also be required of ordinary users, for example, when writing copyright articles, providing consulting services, and creating training materials. In fact, any product of intellectual labor stored on an electronic medium must be strictly protected against editing or duplication.
To protect documents from copying and editing, a VDR is also used – this is a safe place to store and share information. To gain access to the required document, the administrator gives the trusted person a username and password to enter the virtual store. Restrictions on copying, editing or printing a document can also be configured here. An example of such secure storage is a virtual data room, which has a multi-level security system that allows uploading large amounts of information and provides separate access to files from any device (from a PC, tablet or smartphone).
The virtual data room features is that you can do the following:
- organize a single workspace for secure document sharing;
- full control over access to corporate data;
- track all user actions with documents.
Protect Doc and PDF Documents In VDR
Mark
Documents marked as not for editing or copying are typically shared between multiple users. Sometimes documents are discreetly flagged to make it easier to locate the source of the leak. For example, in the original document, dots or other characters are placed in different places on the page – often, when replacing a document, unscrupulous users do not pay attention to such details, and an attempt at deception is quickly revealed. Some firmware devices and printers can create special marks that set specific spacing and font sizes for each side of the document. The specified protection method is reactive in nature – that is, the flag alone cannot prevent an attempt to copy or modify a document, but it does help to quickly find the culprit when detecting an incident.
Password
You can set a password for each electronic document or archive. To do this, use the built-in functions of the application, for example in Word or Acrobat. When working with a protected document, a password is requested when editing, copying or printing the document, depending on the level of protection set by the owner and creator of this document. It should be noted that the file or archive itself can be copied and made publicly available, and if the password becomes known, it will not be difficult for other users to open and change it.
Digital Key (USB or SD card)
The meaning of this protection method is to use an access key on a physical medium (flash drive or SD card) to work with a document. A file protected in this way can be copied to a computer, but can only be opened with a physical key.