How to Protect PDF Today Blog

Here at the Protect my PDF blog, we are often asked how to secure a PDF file. Our first response is always to ask the person if they have released their PDF yet.

If the answer is, “no, the PDF has not yet been released” that’s good. If the answer is, “yes, we already have copies out there” then that’s a problem. Why?

Because, like locking the stable door after the horse has bolted, it’s too late. Even one copy of your PDF ebook or other PDF file, in the wrong hands is one too many and there are likely already scores of unauthorized PDF copies floating around.

The only time to secure a PDF is before it has been released. And these are the steps that should be taken.

1. Use a PDF protection system that contains live monitoring of who is accessing your PDF file. Monitor their name and IP address.

2. Use a secure PDF system that places a shell around your PDF that prevents unauthorized viewing.

3. Secure your PDF with a protection system that enables you to remove access to your PDF, whenever you choose. This is critical.

4. Do not allow printing of your PDF. Even in protection systems that claim to stop copying via the print process (printing to Adobe Acrobat and making a 100% unprotected copy, for example) the results of these systems is less than perfect. Instead, offer a printed, hard copy of your document as a stand-alone item (for additional profit if you desire)

5. Make sure you can evaluate your prospective PDF protection system for low cost, before rolling it out on a larger scale

6. Make sure your PDF protection system has versions that work with both PC for PDF protection and Mac PDF protection. Many protect PDF methods only work with one or the other operating system.

7. For our recommended solution that has all of the above features, with a demo video of how it works, please visit here

Need to protect PDF files, without using a password. And do it quickly? One easy way to prevent unauthorized circulation of your PDF documents, is to imprint the name of the authorized person or company directly into the PDF, so it cannot be removed.

That way, you should know where the unauthorized release of information originated. At the very least, it makes people a little less willing to distribute PDF files, if they know their name will be all over the PDF document.

Here is a free way to do this;

1. Go to http://Stamp.la

2. Select the PDF file you wish to stamp the name of the company or person on

3. Click UPLOAD FILE to bring the file into the system for processing;

4. Enter the name and email of the person whom you wish to imprint into the PDF document

5. The Stamp.la system will then give you a link for download of the imprinted PDF file

6. Download the PDF

7. When you open the protected PDF file, you can see that the person’s name and email is imprinted on every page, in the lower-left hand corner;

This method of protecting your PDF files is effective to a small degree, we recommend additional PDF methods, such as license code entry and live PDF access monitoring, for more effective PDF security.

If you are dealing with standard password PDF security (which we do not recommend) Advanced PDF Password Recovery enables you to recover PDF passwords and instantly remove PDF restrictions, according to specialist software research outfits. They claim you get access to password-protected PDF files quickly and efficiently. Also allows you to instantly unlock restricted PDF documents, by removing printing, editing and copying restrictions.

Advanced PDF Password Recovery recovers (or instantly removes) passwords protecting or locking PDF documents which have been created with all versions of Adobe Acrobat or many other PDF applications.

Book Guard Pro does not recommend the use of password security for a variety of reasons. Let’s take a look at the  features and benefits of PDF password recovery software, as stated by the manufacturers, to see the dangers PDF publishers are exposing their PDF ebooks and other PDF documents to, by using passwords alone;

* Supports all versions of Adobe Acrobat, including Acrobat 9
* Supports GPU acceleration
* Supports all third-party products producing PDF files
* Instantly unlocks PDF documents with printing, copying and editing restrictions
* Removes “owner” and “user” passwords
* Recovers passwords to open
* Supports 40-bit and 128-bit RC4 encryption as well as 128-bit and 256-bit AES encryption
* Patent-pending Thunder Tables technology recovers 40-bit passwords in a matter of minutes
* Dictionary and brute-force attacks with user-defined masks and advanced templates
* Three editions to satisfy the most demanding and savvy customers
* Optionally removes JScript code, form fields and digital signatures
* Batch mode allows automatic processing of multiple files
* Highly optimized low-level code optimized for modern multi-core CPUs

Adobe has said it expects updates for Adobe Reader 7 and 8, and Acrobat 7 and 8, to be available.

If you’ve chosen to read PDF documents using the popular alternative to Adobe — Foxit Reader — you also need to update. Foxit has released an update that fixes at least three serious vulnerabilities in its Reader products. That update, which brings Foxit Reader to version 3.0, is available from here.

Foxit Reader is a free PDF document viewer, with very small size, breezing-fast launch speed and rich feature set. Its core function is compatible with PDF Standard 1.7. Previously, you’ve had to download a huge PDF reader from another software company, such as Adobe, go through a lengthy installation process and wait for an annoying splash window to disappear just to open a PDF document.

Many people find Adobe Reader is a real pain to use. It’s monstrously large. Very slow to load. And includes many features most users will hardly ever need. On the other hand, Foxit PDF Reader 3.0 kills the additional, often unneeded features and throws in some useful additions, such as multimedia support plus content-sharing options. Yet still allowing you to quickly access your PDFs.

The interface is similar to Adobe’s, so you won’t have to change your PDF reading habits.

In a recent test, the text readability was similar. The small program starts surprisingly fast compared with Adobe Reader. You might need to make a few adjustments to get it to work with your Internet browser. But you can find help on Foxit’s support forums.

It’s a good feature that it opens PDFs from the Internet in their own Foxit window – instead of taking resources from within the open browser you are using.

Foxit’s biggest flaw used to be hogging memory. However this has now been corrected. Recent updates include fixing the hyperlink problems, multimedia support, printing highlighted-only sections, and tabbed PDF browsing.

Now, you can read multiple PDFs simultaneously and with ease. Overall, unless you’re tied to Adobe we strongly recommend Foxit, this freeware PDF competitor to Adobe’s older and more bloated PDF reader.

Is there any way to protect your ebooks from being shared when you sell information online? Using ClickBank is a potential solution. By accepting payment with ClickBank, it gives you some security.

How does it work? The first step is to create a sales page for your product. A customer clicks on the buy link and Clickbank allows them to enter their credit card information. If the information is valid, ClickBank sends the customer your download page. If the payment is not valid, ClickBank will not send the customer your download page. As a result, a customer can only access your page if they provide a valid form of payment

What happens after the customer pays for the ebook and downloads it to their computer? There is nothing that prevents that customer from sharing your ebook with everyone because the PDF document can be easily shared.

One possible solution when you sell information online is to use a password protection membership website to control distribution of the ebook. Instead of placing the information in a PDF, you keep it on one of these websites. When someone accesses a product that I have on one of these websites, they need to enter their user name and password and if there is a problem with payment they cannot see the information. I have a main course that costs $700 and has a $97 monthly subscription. That is not something I want being distributed for free. On the other hand, I might not care as much for a $27 ebook.

If only some people share it or your niche is a Christian or home school niche, ideally you will not have to deal with blatant sharing. One good idea is to include in your product a phrase such as ?This is not a free ebook. If you received this without paying for it, please delete it and email me letting me know who shared it with you.? Most people are honest and will delete it. They know that they should not have the book and will delete it without a problem because of their honesty.

The bottom line is that unless you keep your information on a password protected membership website or use PDF protection software, there is not much you can do to stop sharing when you sell information online.

Stephen Beck teaches people how to make money on the internet. Get Stephen’s 3 free videos at http://www.8weekstoprofits.com so you can begin today.