Protect Your Confidential Documents with These Easy PDF Locking Techniques

Are you worried about the safety of your confidential information? In today’s digital age, it’s more important than ever to protect sensitive data. An encrypted PDF or protected PDF file is one way to add an extra layer of protection to your PDF document. Attacks on Microsoft Office documents have increased by 112 percent in 2020, making them the most frequently targeted files for manipulation.

One way to safeguard your PDF document is by locking your PDFs. Learning how to lock a PDF from editing is a quick and easy process that can protect PDF files, prevent unauthorized access and ensure that your information stays secure.

In this article, we’ll show you how to lock a PDF from editing in just a few simple steps. Follow along and learn how to protect your confidential information today!

 

Benefits of Locking a PDF

 

1. Protect Sensitive Data

If your PDF contains sensitive information, such as personal data for employees and contractors or financial information, it’s important to ensure that it is protected from unauthorized access. Locking a PDF can help prevent unauthorized access and protect sensitive data.

 

2. Control Access to PDF Documents

Locking a PDF allows you to control who has access to the document. You can share the password of a protected PDF file with trusted individuals while keeping it out of the hands of unauthorized users.

 

3. Meet Legal or Regulatory Requirements

Some industries and organizations may be required to protect sensitive data by law or regulatory requirements. Locking a PDF can help you meet these requirements and avoid potential legal or financial penalties.

 

How to Lock a PDF File

There are several methods you can use to lock a PDF. Here are some of the most common:

 

Method 1: Use Adobe Acrobat Pro DC to Add Password Protection

Adobe Acrobat Pro DC is a popular software program for editing and securing PDFs. To add a PDF password protection using Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, simply follow these steps:

 

  1. Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat Reader.
  2. Click on “File” and select “Protect Using Password.”
  3. Choose whether you want to restrict editing and printing or just restrict opening the document.
  4. Enter a password, and confirm it.
  5. Save the document.

 

Method 2: Use Microsoft Word to Convert to a PDF and Add Password Protection

Microsoft Word allows you to convert a document to PDF format, and also offers a password protection feature. Here’s how to do it:

 

  1. Open the document in Microsoft Word.
  2. Click on “File” and select “Save As.”
  3. Choose PDF from the dropdown menu.
  4. Click on “More Options” and select “Security Options.”
  5. Check the box next to “Encrypt the document with a password.”
  6. Enter a password, and confirm it.
  7. Save the PDF.

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Method 3: Lock a PDF in MacOS

Preview is the default software for opening, editing, and securing PDF files on MacOS. To lock a PDF in macOS:

 

  1. Open the PDF file in Preview.
  2. Click on “File” and then “Export”.
  3. Choose “PDF” as the file format.
  4. Check the ” Encrypt ” box and enter a password in the “Password” field.
  5. Re-enter the password to confirm it.
  6. Choose a location to save the locked PDF and click “Save”.
  7. The PDF is now locked with a password.

 

Method 4: Use a Third-Party PDF Editing Tool

There are many third-party PDF editing tools available that offer password protection and PDF page lock features. Some popular options to protect PDF files include Nitro Pro, Foxit PhantomPDF, and PDF-XChange Editor. These programs offer a range of features beyond password protection, such as digital signature and document editing.

 

Method 5: Lock a PDF from editing

Here are the steps to lock a PDF from editing using Adobe Reader:

 

  1. Open Adobe Acrobat Pro DC and the PDF file you want to protect.
  2. Select the “Tools” tab from the top menu.
  3. Click on “Protect” and then choose “Restrict Editing”.
  4. Choose a password and specify the editing permissions that you want to allow for users without the password.
  5. Save the PDF file and share it with others who can view it but won’t be able to make any changes without the permissioned password.

 

How To Lock Multiple PDFs at Once

Another disadvantage of a password protected PDF is that you must set the password for each document one at a time. This becomes time-consuming if you have a couple of dozen documents with PDF page lock, let alone several hundred.

This document-level security also raises the question of how many passwords you will use. If you protect them all with the same password and then share those documents with different groups of people, the passwords become close to useless. On the other hand, using a separate PDF password for each of 100 or 1,000 documents becomes a logistical nightmare.

If multiple files need to be shared, folder-level security is much more efficient and secure than document-level security. A virtual data room (VDR) is designed to lock thousands of documents simultaneously, which can be uploaded and automatically encrypted in bulk.

 

Types of PDF-Locking Protection

There are several ways of locking an Adobe PDF file, depending on your needs:

 

  • Access monitoring: Each time a person accesses a document, the event is recorded in an activity log. Reviewing the log, you can determine when it was viewed and by whom, as well as if it was edited, downloaded or printed by the user.
  • Expiration date: You can set a PDF to be unusable after a specific date. After that date, the document can no longer be opened, even if a copy has been downloaded to the user’s computer.
  • Authorized locations: PDFs can be locked to specific places using IP address ranges. Anyone outside of a specified IP address or a range of addresses for a country or region cannot access the document.
  • Dynamic watermarks: A digital watermark appears on each page of the PDF when it is printed or downloaded. The information in the watermark identifies who downloaded or printed the document.
  • Printing: You can prevent users from printing a PDF or limit the number of times they can print it.
  • Editing: You can allow others to view the PDF but not edit it. You can also allow them to edit specific portions of a PDF but not others, which is a valuable feature when you need someone to fill out a form.
  • Print-screen protection: Locked PDFs can prevent anyone from using print-screen or screen-capture software to save a snapshot of an open document.

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The Problem with Passwords

Using the best, most complicated method of encryption is absolutely worthless if someone can guess your password. It’s even worse when you give someone your password.

Password protected PDF files are designed to keep your documents secure only if nobody knows your password. The moment you share that password with someone else, like a client, a consultant or a co-worker, they have the power to do anything they would like with your document. This includes disabling the password and permanently unlocking the document.

 

Protecting PDFs in a VDR

Using a Virtual Data Room (VDR) like CapLinked is the most efficient and secure way to share PDF files, making it an essential tool for enterprise document management. CapLinked provides industry-leading security features to protect confidential PDF documents during business deals, mergers, and acquisitions.

CapLinked’s VDR solution offers advanced encryption technology to protect sensitive data at rest and in transit, along with secure user authentication and access controls to ensure only authorized individuals can access the documents.

Your team, for example, may all have the ability to upload and edit documents, while clients or investors have only read-only access to the contents of specific folders, with security restrictions such as:

 

  • Time-limited viewing access
  • Digital watermarking of all downloads with IP address, email address and a time-stamp
  • Download restrictions
  • Printing restrictions
  • Revocation of access at any time, including downloaded documents

 

Documents are encrypted using military-grade 256-bit encryption and are stored on servers that are SSAE18 and ISO 27001 certified. Setting all of this up takes only 10 or 15 minutes, depending on how many different types of group permissions you want to use. To explore these features for yourself, sign up for a free trial.

 

Sources:

HelpNetSecurity. (2021, February 17). Title of the Article. HelpNetSecurity. Retrieved February 26, 2024, from https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/02/17/malware-2020/

 

Apple. (n.d.). Title of the Guide. Apple Support. Retrieved February 26, 2024, from https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/preview/prvw587dd90f/mac

 

Microsoft. (n.d.). Protect a document with a password. Microsoft Support. Retrieved February 26, 2024, from https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/protect-a-document-with-a-password-05084cc3-300d-4c1a-8416-38d3e37d6826