Is It Safe to Password Protect a PDF File?

No, it’s not safe to password protect PDF files because your files are not guaranteed to be protected from cybercriminals intercepting and gaining unauthorized access to your information. Often, people password protect a PDF file to protect sensitive information and set permissions on how the PDF file can be used. If you password protect a PDF file, you can choose whether you want a recipient of the file to view or edit the file.

There are two main types of passwords that you can use when password protecting your PDF files. A document open password is one that a recipient needs to type in to open the PDF file. A permissions password is designed for updating permission settings on the PDF file. This means there are two different password options that can be used to access and manipulate the PDF file.

Continue reading to learn the risks of using password protection on PDF files and a better alternative to password protecting PDF files.

Risks of password protecting PDF files

You may want to password protect a PDF file that contains sensitive information, such as when sharing financial documents or legal reports. Though you may believe password protecting PDF files is a good way of securing your data, there are many risks in doing so.

Permissions can be bypassed

If you send a password protected PDF file to someone and it gets intercepted, permissions that you set for the document can be easily bypassed by ignoring or removing them. For example, if you send a legal document that you need someone to sign as a password protected PDF file, the person who intercepts it could edit, copy or print the document if they remove your restrictions with a PDF reader. This means that if your password is weak or easy-to-guess, the person who intercepts your PDF file can remove any permissions intended to restrict them from editing the document.

Passwords can be stolen or compromised

Let’s say you are sending a private financial document as a password protected PDF file to your spouse, and you use a password the two of you know and use often. Since passwords can be stolen or compromised, there is a high chance that using a reused or weak password containing personal information, such as your anniversary date or pet’s name, could be guessed by a cybercriminal. Despite you setting a password on your PDF file, someone can figure out the password and use it to access the PDF file’s private contents if they intercept it and your password is not secure enough.

Not enough access controls

Authorized users can remove the password from a password protected PDF file and then share the opened PDF file with others. This reduces the security and privacy of your PDF file, since not setting strict enough access controls leads to anyone being able to access your information if the PDF file is open.

A secure alternative to password protecting PDF files

Instead of password protecting your PDF files, you should use a password manager like Keeper^® that can help you securely store and share important documents, including PDF files. When you use Keeper Password Manager, you can also buy Secure File Storage as an add-on, which will safely guard important documents in a digital vault. Once your important documents like insurance files, passport photos, car titles and vaccination records are in your encrypted vault, you can share these files without jeopardizing your private information.

You can share a PDF through Keeper just as easily as you can revoke access to the file at any time. For example, if you shared your budget and financial records with a financial advisor but no longer want them to have access, you can remove them as authorized viewers of each encrypted file or an entire shared folder of files.

Keeper provides elite security to protect your private information. Keeper is zero trust which is a security framework that assumes no person or machine is to be trusted, so all users must have their identity continuously verified. One of the top benefits of zero trust is that having to verify every user and device minimizes the risk of cybercriminals accessing passwords or private documents. Keeper also uses zero-knowledge encryption which means that your private data is encrypted and decrypted on your device only, so no company server will have access to your information, not even Keeper. This also means that if the file were to be intercepted by a cybercriminal while being shared, it would be unreadable without the encryption key. 

Use Keeper to securely store and share PDF files

While sending documents over email and password protecting PDFs may feel safe and convenient, using Keeper is the best way to make sure your information stays protected. By keeping your private documents in an encrypted, digital vault, you can share files without the risk of any cybercriminal intercepting and accessing them, violating your privacy.

Start using Keeper Password Manager today with a free 30-day trial which includes five free file uploads.