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Posts Tagged ‘password recovery’

How Secure are Password-Protected Files?

Saturday, February 14th, 2009

We recently discussed email security for accountants and mentioned that the use of password-protected files is not usually a very good solution for meeting data privacy needs. After writing this and getting some feed back, we thought that the issue of password-protected files really deserves some further discussion. Many people are under the assumption that if they use the “password protection” features of whatever software they are using, that their data is safe and secure. However, this is not necessarily the case. Why?

Using password-protected files to secure data is fast and easy and built into many applications. Why not use it? Certainly, password protecting files is much better than not doing so. However, there are several things that determine how secure these “protected” files really are.

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Posted in LuxSci Library: Security and Privacy, TechNotes
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Accounting, Taxes, and Identity Theft

Friday, February 13th, 2009

Everyone always harps on the necessity of privacy when discussing health care, government, and banking communications. It is surprising how little attention is paid to email security with regards to accounting and tax preparation. There is a real danger of identity theft, unintended information disclosure, as well as invasion of privacy when using tax preparation services or organizations that do not use secure email. Why is this?