8
BEST WAYS TO
BEST WAYS TO
SECURE
SECURE
YOUR
YOUR
PDF
PDF
PDFs beat almost every other kind of
document when it comes
to security.
But which methods are available, and which
ones
should you integrate into your workflow?
TRUST MANAGER
Turn on TRUST MANAGER in your PDF
reader to guard against malware from
malicious PDF documents.
23% 23%
of annualized costs from
cybercrime were related
to malicious code(1)
REDACTION
PERMANENT REMOVAL
of visible text and
images. If you’ve ever
read a government
report, you’ve probably
seen redaction in
practice.
COMMON INFORMATION
SUBJECT TO REDACTION:
Social Security
Numbers
Dates
of birth
Home
Addresses
Medical
Information
Financial
account
numbers
Insurance
coverage
details
740
740
million+
million+
Online records
exposed in 2013(2)
ENCRYPTION
Two main types of
encryption, PASSWORD
and DIGITAL , can help
secure your PDFs.
PASSWORD:
Access available
via password only
DIGITAL:
Access determined
by digital certificates
Encryption using
passwords is by far the
MOST COMMON
though it is generally
less secure than digital
certificates.
More than 1
MILLION people
per day SUSTAIN
CYBERATTACKS.
That’s
14 ADULTS
14 ADULTS
EVERY SECOND.(3)
EVERY SECOND.(3)
DIGITAL SIGNATURE
Verifies the authenticity of the
signee and the integrity of the
signed document.
1
IDENTITY
THIEF
THIEF
WAS CONVICTED
FOR EVERY
20,750
INTERNET CRIME
VICTIMS (4)
DOCUMENT CERTIFICATION
Enables CONTROL OF APPROVED
DOCUMENTS , ensuring that certain changes
will not be possible for the document to
remain certified. For instance, if your marketing
manager has signed off on the next quarter’s
plan, you wouldn’t want someone changing a
budget item, so document certification
controls what types of changes can be made.
$5.9
$5.9
billion
billion
Global losses in
2013 due to
phishing alone(5)
RIGHTS MANAGEMENT
CYBERCRIME
costs the global
economy about
$445
$445
billion
billion
per year (6)
Two main types of rights management, information rights management
and digital rights management, can help keep your documents secure.
INFORMATION RIGHTS MANAGEMENT (IRM):
Typically within a company, this includes giving
individuals specific rights, which can differ
depending on the person.
DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT (DRM):
Protects information after sale, most often
consumer-facing, the biggest contemporary
example of DRM in practice are paywalls.
DOCUMENT SANITIZATION
This allows you to remove sensitive information from
your document before publishing.
COMMON ITEMS REMOVED
IN SANITIZATION:
Metadata
Comments
Hidden
layers
Overlapping
Objects
Hidden data from
previous versions
4040
millionmillion
Americans who have had
personal information
stolen by hackers(6)
That’s about
15%
15%
OF THE
POPULATION.(6)
=1 million
WATERMARKS, HEADERS, FOOTERS
Watermarks, headers and footers
all indicate the LEVEL OF
CONFIDENTIALITY a document
should have. However, this
method depends on people
enforcing the security, as there’s
no mechanism inside the
document to prevent those who
shouldn’t see it from being able
to view it.
1 in 14
1 in 14
PROGRAMSPROGRAMS
is later confirmed as malware.(7)
