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Securing Documents

In order to provide better security for documents containing personally identifiable information sent across the network via e-mail, the Office of Commissioned Corps Personnel strongly suggests that these types of documents be protected from being opened or altered using passwords.  To facilitate this, the following procedures can be used to apply a password to an Adobe Acrobat file.

Applying Password Protection to an Adobe Acrobat Document 

  1. Open the document that you need to protect.
  2. Click on the “Document” dropdown menu at the top of the “Adobe Acrobat Standard” window.
  3. Select “Security”.
  4. Click on “Secure this Document…”
  5. In the “Select a Policy to Apply” window, under “Name”, click on “Restrict Opening and Editing Using Passwords…”
  6. Click on the “Apply” button at the bottom of the window.
  7. In the middle of the “Password Security – Settings” window, click the “Require a password to open the document” checkbox.
  8. Type a password in the “Document Open Password” textbox.
  9. Click the “Okay” button at the bottom of the “Password Security – Settings” window.
  10. In the “Adobe Acrobat – Confirm Document Open Password” window, re-type the same password in the “Document Open Password” textbox.
  11. Click the “Okay” button on the “Adobe Acrobat – Confirm Document Open Password” window.
  12.  Click the “Okay” button, on the “Acrobat Security” window.
  13.  Save or close the document.
  14.  Remember to send the password as a separate message or call the receiver of the document and tell them the password.  Do not send the password in the same message with the document.

 

 

 

 

 

Last Reviewed: November 15, 2006