Password Controled Access

Using a password to control access

Did you know you can password protect your Excel workbook? You can also do the same with your Word documents and if necessary Power Point Presentations. The protection will help but not eliminate all who want to gain access. Therefore it should not be the only step you take in securing your confidential data. Security at the file level is only the first tier, you also need to secure at the access level to the device where the data is stored and more.

Password protecting an Excel workbook at the file level controls access in two ways: First it can limit access to the document and secondly it limits which users can save changes. In other words you can provide read access but restrict the ability to modify.

Just remember, security is a term with loose meaning. Given the opportunity and determination or motivation, any file can be opened. Moreover, anybody can purchase password-cracking software. Your best protection against misuse or theft is to use long passwords with random characters. The security you select with Excel or Word will however let you limit who has access to the file content.

To assign a password to an Excel workbook , Power Point or Word document:

1. From the File menu, choose Save As.
2. Look for the “Tools” drop-down menu in the save box and select general options.
3. Here you can set two passwords: one to open and one to modify.
4. Enter one or both passwords and click OK.
5. Confirm each password and click OK.
6. Then save the document.

These features will give you some control over access and modification of a file. A user can be given the password to open but not the password to modify. This will not prevent the user with access to read from saving the file with a new name or the deletion of the file altogether.

Just remember a password only keeps users out. Someone that knows this password has access to all the data and can modify the data saving it with a new name. The key is casual users won't have the expertise to crack your password, but anybody can purchase software to do so.

Before you start password protecting all your workbooks, there are two important things to keep in mind:

• A user with the password to modify the workbook can also remove the password.
• Your best protection against tampering (or outright theft) is to use long password of random characters. It will slow down attempts to gain access and that delay might cause the hacker to put your workbook aside.

The Microsoft password protection is a great feature and fortunately, it's easy to implement. Just don't confuse it with sheet protection and by all means, don't rely solely on it to secure sensitive data.