Protecting sensitive documents is everyone’s top priority. For sharing and storing the information documents like PDFs are handy and reliable. Unprotected documents open the opportunity for hackers or malicious actors to get unauthorized access for data tampering and leakage. If you’re wondering how to protect sensitive documents such as PDFs, it requires impeccable security solutions. Now, follow this guide to learn the best tips and tools to secure sensitive documents from digital pirates.
Examples of Highly Sensitive Documents
Before jumping on the methods to secure documents, let’s first understand the types of confidential or privileged PDF files. Take a look below:
- Financial Documents: Tax, bank statements, invoices, payment records, credit cards.
- Personal Identification Data: Licence, passwords, identity cards, address.
- Legal & Business Contracts: Agreements, contracts, legal policies, reports.
- Medical and Healthcare: Medical history, patient information, prescriptions.
- Business & Government Data: Trade secrets, research reports, business strategies.
These are the classified range of documents typically known as confidential documents. For industries like healthcare, finance, legal, and more, need to protect sensitive documents to meet the data protection standards or laws. Now, move on to understand the importance of protecting PDF files.
Why Protect Sensitive Documents?
PDFs are becoming the versatile document format for sharing and keeping highly confidential data. Moreover, the unsecured PDF file unlocks the fear of data loss, leakage, and tampering. Here, companies need to bear the consequences of data exposure due to digital threats. It leads to damage to reputation and client trust. Here are the common types of threats that can destroy sensitive information:
- Unauthorized Document Access: Unprotection documents allow outsiders or unauthorized users to gain access and steal information.
- Cyber Attacks for Data Breach: To exploit confidential documents, hackers use advanced tools or cyber attack practices for data leakage.
- Phishing and Malware Attacks: Sometimes cyber criminals insert malicious scripts such as viruses or malware to gain access to PDF files.
These are a few examples of digital threats. However, many advanced tools allow hackers to steal information. To eliminate the chances of data loss and cyber attacks, it is essential to protect sensitive PDF files as one of the best preventive steps for data protection. Now, let’s move forward to learn the types of security on documents.
What are the Types of PDF Document Protection?
Documents like PDFs hold a diverse range of information including sensitive ones. To protect the highly privileged PDF files, it is crucial to impose document security. There are various kind of protection that help to maintain data confidentiality and prevent chances of accidental loss.
Here are the common types of PDF document security to safeguard sensitive data:
- Known Password Protection: The best way to secure a PDF document is to impose known or user password protection. Using this security, you can encrypt the entire document, preventing direct access. In this way, you can ensure resilient data protection and mitigate the chances of breach.
- Owner Password Security: Instead of locking the complete document, document creators can apply owner protection to restrict actions like editing, content copying, printing, and more. This security is helpful when sharing confidential documents with multiple users at once.
- Encryption Security: To protect sensitive documents like PDFs — encryption is the ultimate solution. This mode of PDF security helps to convert the text into unreadable content. In the absence of a decrypting key, you can’t access or read the confidential data.
Overall, these are the modes of document protection that effectively work for protecting sensitive data. Moreover, you can impose these security based on the confidentiality of the document to ensure impeccable security. Now, let’s move to learn the best methods to secure PDF files.
#1 How to Protect Sensitive PDF Files – Adobe Acrobat Tool
To protect sensitive documents, use Adobe Acrobat Pro tool — the advanced and secure software to safeguard PDFs with robust security. Using this pro tool, you can apply different kinds of protection like user and owner permissions on documents. In this way, you can lock a PDF from editing, printing, content copying, and more. Moreover, it is an effective way of protecting privileged information from tampering and misuse.
Using the pro features, you can fulfill your business needs when ensuring 100% data security. Besides this, it allows you to keep the formatting and originality of the document during the process. Here is the stepwise guide to secure sensitive documents using the Acrobat Pro Tool:
- To safeguard the document, install the Adobe Acrobat tool.
- Pick Properties and then, use Security > enable Password Security.
- After this, set the strong password for the document > OK.
- Lastly, download the secured PDF to encrypt the sensitive information.
Limitations of Using Acrobat Tool: To use the document security, you need to opt for the Acrobat subscription plan. There are different plans, starting at $24. For small-scale businesses and professionals, bearing the high fees of this software won’t be feasible. Additionally, the interface is quite complicated, making it difficult to manage the software. So, look for the more cost-effective tool mentioned below.
How to Protect Sensitive Documents – SysTools PDF Protecting Tool
To secure the confidential PDF file, use SysTools PDF Lock Software, one of the most powerful and edge-cutting software designed for professionals and businesses to handle sensitive PDFs with impeccable protection. Using this robust tool, you can apply both user and owner protection including editing, printing, text copying, and password restrictions with ease.
Using this pro tool, you can impose strong encryption security like AES 128, 256, and RC4 -128 to convert the document into an unreadable file. Moreover, it allows you to secure your PDFs like financial records, patient history, transaction data, and more. Most importantly, this tool helps you to ensure 100% data originality without interruption or bugs. Now, let’s learn the workings of software.
Guide to Secure Confidential PDF Document
- Install the SysTools PDF Locking solution on your PC.
- “Add Files” to upload the highly sensitive documents.
- Use the Change feature to find the location of the resultant file.
- Go to “Apply Open Document Password” > create the strong passkey.
- Move down and choose the Encryption Type > press the Lock button.
Concluding Words
Data security is crucial in every sector. Here, we have explained 2 ways to protect sensitive documents like PDFs. By using these pro methods, you can ensure data privacy and protection from digital threats. Compared to Acrobat, SysTools PDF locking solution is more cost-effective and offers a sleek interface. To use this software, professionals won’t need to depend on technical support. So, try this reliable and safe tool for protecting your data.