Is there a way to lock certain microsoft word documents with a password so they can be private?

Question

A friend of mine suggested that I turn the files that I dont want to be seen into hidden files. Can anyone help with ways to keep only MICROSOFT WORD documents that I want private. Im interested in hearing all of your ideas no matter how advanced or simple. Thanks for any help.

Answer 1

You can put passwords on office documents, but they are about as low-security as you can get - like a locked glass door. It's easy to find programs that can break these forms of encryption in times of about a couple seconds to a few hours, depending on the program and version.

A better solution is to put a STRONG password on your user account. The longer the password, the better; complex is good, but long will do; I like to tell stories sometimes: ex. "IWentToTheParkLastSundayAndAte5Hotdogs" - no one will EVER crack that, and it's actually not that hard to remember, unlike "rT54&#vM", which would be much easier to break.

Then, make you documents private (right-click my documents, click properties, sharing tab, "make this folder private"), then encrypt the files. You can do this file-by-file and only on sensitive ones, or on whole folders, and even on the my documents folder. Right-click, properties, general tab, advanced button, "encrypt contents to secure data". This makes it so that someone would need your password, or a LOT of time to view the files.

Of course that only protects it while it's on your computer. Once you send it over email or take it with on your flash drive, it's fair game for prying eyes. You can encrypt a flash drive with special software, but that generally hurts interoperability, as software often has to be installed on every computer you want to use it on. This is where a strong password on the document itself can make a big difference and at least slow down an attacker.

Answer 2

Yes, it is. Go to Tools -> Options -> Security and enter a password for the document. You can have different passwords to read the document, and to modify it. I would suggest using the Advanced tab to select an encryption method other than Weak Encryption (which is useless) and Office 97/2000 Compatible. The best choice is probably the one which uses the current US standard, AES. Also a good idea to make sure that the people you want to share the file with have a version that supports the encryption method you choose. Good security hygiene is to transmit the password via a totally different method -- NOT via e-mail, if that's how you'll share the file, for example. Provide the password via telephone, or a piece of paper transmitted manually.

Answer 3

You can lock your files so that only you have access to them. You can even lock your computer under a password or passwords so that each person that uses it has a separate windows access. And though even though the same file is on the same drive they can't peek on it.