If I password protect a pdf, is it safe to email back and forth if it will contain very sensitive information?

by **caelin** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 1:38 pm

I work at a bankruptcy law firm and I created the pdf form to send to client, have them complete the form and email it back to me. It will contain information such as their social security numbers and bank account and credit card numbers. This information is necessary to file the bankruptcy's. If I password protect the form before I send it, will it be safe for them to send back to me with that information in the fields?

by **wardell** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 1:43 pm

Not safe. I know some tools can crack pdf password.

Such as...

Advanced PDF Password Remover
http://www.advancedpdfconverter.com/products/pdfpasswordremover.html

PDF Password Recovery
http://www.recoverlostpassword.com/products/pdfpasswordrecovery.html

by **dennie18** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 1:45 pm

Snowman's answer is a good one.

Remember that while email is convenient, it's not 100% secure and that information can be intercepted.

I personally think for information such as this, the person really needs to fill it IN PERSON. It's safer and for a law firm, you may want to consider this.

If you really need to do it electronically, I would suggest that you password the PDF *as well as* compressing the PDF file into a ZIP file and then password protecting that. This will provide a two way password process. Then you CALL them with the password (don't email it). The problem is, you need to make sure that the user on the other end knows how to create a password protected compressed file so they can then send it back to you with the information and call you with the password. It's a lot of effort which can probably be avoided if you just get them to come in person to fill out the form.

by **hillocke** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 1:53 pm

first off, keep in mind that sending an email is like sending a postcard, anyone who is in the line of delivery can read what has been sent.

depends on what the password does, if it will not let the person open the document without inputting it, then yes that is totally safe (provided you havent sent the password in the same email)
however if the password is only to allow a user to modify the document then no, because anyone with basic know-how can intercept the email and open it as read-only

Hope this helps

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