How to Secure Your PDF Document

Having your PDF files secure is very crucial. It helps protect valuable information you may store in such files. The security of information is essential when you run a business. In most cases, no one wants unauthorized individuals to have access to sensitive data. When this happens, it can jeopardize the activities of your business. There are several ways you can protect a PDF file. Some of the most popular methods of securing a PDF document are:

Redaction,
Adding of signatures,
Converting pages to images,
Adding watermark,
Encryption.

Redaction

The process of redacting a PDF file is a good way of securing a PDF file. When redacting a file, you are removing or covering information that is present in a PDF document. In most cases, people redact a file when they want to share most of a document without divulging sensitive information. In general, redaction is used by government agencies. Therefore, before releasing documents to the public, sensitive information about the government or individuals is redacted to protect their identity. In addition, individuals and organizations sometimes use redaction to withhold sensitive information from the general public.

Adding of Digital Signatures

Adding a signature is one way to secure a PDF file. There are three types of digital signatures, which are:

Simple digital signature – A simple digital signature is a scanned physical signature. You can create this signature by signing on paper and scanning it.
Basic digital signature – Similarly, a basic digital signature is also a picture of a physical signature. However, this signature tracks changes to a document.
Advanced digital signature – An advanced digital signature tracks changes to a PDF file and provides 2-factor authentication. Therefore, it allows you to verify the sender's identity.

Encryption

Encryption is one of the more powerful ways of securing a PDF file. When you encrypt a PDF file, an unauthorized individual will not have access to the file without having the write decryption resource. You can encrypt a PDF file by adding a password or a certificate. A password-encrypted PDF document will not open unless the right password is used. On the other hand, certificate encryption uses private and public keys to grant access to the PDF file. Therefore, the encryption process is one of the best ways of securing your PDF file.

Converting Pages to Images

Converting the pages of a PDF file is another way of securing it. To perform this process, all you need to do is convert all the pages to images. When you transform the pages into images, you limit people’s ability to copy content from your file. Therefore, you reduce the likelihood of unauthorized redistribution of a document.

Adding Watermark

In addition to converting pages to images, you can add a watermark to the PDF file. Adding a watermark makes a PDF more secure. It helps limit unauthorized sharing of a PDF file. Therefore, people that may want to use this PDF document for commercial purposes find it challenging to do so. PDF page conversion to image and watermark addition is offered by PDFlite.co.

Check out our useful articles:

Ways to Secure Your PDF File

Redaction

Adding of Digital Signatures

Encryption

Converting Pages to Images

Adding Watermark