Protecting a business against fraud and malicious acts is no easy feat. Nowadays, threats are everywhere, especially in our highly digital and interconnected world. Every year, businesses face overall losses related to fraud or data breaches that amount to hundreds of millions of dollars. Even a single breach can cost a company immensely—so good document security has to be high on the to-do list. With Tungsten Power PDF, encryption to guard against bad actors is right at your fingertips.

The right software, a strong encryption standard and applying the best practices for document security can put your business on a much safer and less risky footing. Even small office setups should explore investing in improving security procedures. What do you need to know about using this process?

The type of encryption and security you can add to PDFs

Many encryption algorithms exist today, each more secure than the last. Power PDF includes support for many legacy formats but also today's gold standard for security. The strongest version, the "Advanced Encryption Standard," or AES, uses 256-bit encryption.

This approach is so complex that it would take longer than the age of the entire universe to "brute force" your way past the encryption. Using a strong password to encrypt a document with AES-256 ensures that only those authorized to access your information can do so.

Managing risks with better encryption

Locking down your documents for risk management isn't difficult, especially with Power PDF. When you have a document open in Power PDF and want to encrypt it, the process is fast and intuitive. If you want to encrypt, start by locating the Security ribbon. Then follow these steps:

1. Select security.
2. Click "Manage Security," then "Modify."
3. From the list titled "Security Method," select "Password Security."
4. Set your encryption level. We recommended 256-bit AES.
5. Choose what elements of a document to encrypt. If you don't encrypt metadata, you could expose important information about the contents.
6. Check the box to allow document opening only by password.
7. Adjust other permissions settings for the document as needed.
8. Click OK and confirm your password.

You now have a highly-secured, password-protected PDF ready for use. Keep in mind, though, that if you enter the password and convert the PDF to another format, it will not have the same protection.

Use redaction and other tools

Encryption isn't the only tool you should consider for protecting your company's information. At times, you may also need to expunge data from documents. This might be to prepare documents for release or because you no longer need to retain some personally identifiable information. Redaction is the right tool for this job.

It's not always easy to redact documents correctly, and high-profile blunders in the news over the years have made that clear. However, Power PDF simplifies the redaction process, especially for large or long documents. You can even configure Power PDF to recognize common forms of secure data, such as social security numbers, and to redact them automatically upon creating a PDF from a document scan.

Once you apply redactions and finalize them, the text beneath vanishes forever. It's a tool to use with care, but its power is essential for keeping classified data safe.

Discover simpler security options for your documents today

With gold-standard encryption and redaction tools that are easy to use, exercising more control over your document security is possible. Using Power PDF, encryption processes are easy to set up and simple to maintain. More than just a tool for security, Power PDF also features all the other tools you need for working with this ubiquitous document format—including editing, conversion, form creation and more. See the difference for yourself firsthand with a free trial of Power PDF.