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Need Ability to Encrypt/Password Protect Document


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I have started work in Publisher that will include extremely sensitive material, which if compromised, will have dire consequences. Being new to this app, I am amazed there is no way to save the work as a encrypted and password protected document.

The work I am doing now in Publisher will take several days. When I finish a section and save, I need to save it in a protected format. When completed, the document will be for a few eyes only. If the material in it is compromised, it will result in dire consequences. I will have no trouble exporting it as a PDF and then encrypting the PDF using Acrobat or PDF Expert. But that is beside the point as it will leave the original, multi-page Publisher document unprotected.

Documents in other apps such as Adobe and Microsoft can easily be protected. However, I dislike Adobe, I am getting used to Affinity apps and I certainly do not want to start over my project in InDesign.

I consider not having an ability to protect ongoing and finished work a serious shortcoming . . . for myself and others.

Affinity, please figure out a way to save work in Designer and Publisher as encrypted/password protected and update these apps accordingly. This really is essential for lots of people and if you ever want them to be used where secrecy, confidentiality and security is necessary. (I can use an outside app to encrypt the file. The problem, though, is that some few others who need to see the original and make necessary changes, may not be able to use the app needed to decrypt. That's why there needs to be a way to "seal" and open a doc by anyone with the password.)

THANK YOU!

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  • 4 weeks later...
Quote

Documents in other apps such as Adobe and Microsoft can easily be protected.

And as far as I know, they can be easily hacked, too.

Use cryptography instead. Encrypt your hard disk, your OS, choose safe passwords (the longer, the better), use tools like veracrypt to encapsulate your document. From the very beginning of creating your document, your pc/mac must be safe. 

Alexander Walther, Informationsdesigner B.A.

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3 hours ago, alexplus_de said:

And as far as I know, they can be easily hacked, too.

For the most part this changed for the Office apps with the newer XML-based file formats which use a much more secure form of encryption than the older binary formats.

However, none of these (PDF, Office, encrypted disk or container, etc.) will be any more secure than the ability to prevent someone from guessing or otherwise obtaining the selected password.

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  • 1 year later...

I agree completely with the ability to password protect our document if needed.

Businesses need to protect their work, especially for copyrights, and documents one would not want their competitors to get hold of to take away any advantage they might have.

This is essential. I also realize that the Affinity application themselves are in a proprietary format that other applications can’t read but anyone with Affinity’s applications has full access to the documents if they get their hands on them.

Just as Serif does not want their source code to get out, Affinity users need to have access to the same sort of protections, especially for documents that go “out of house” or that might be copied and passes to those who have no right to them.

Thank you in advance for considering this possibility.

MaxClass

OS X Ventura 13.0.1, Mac Studio M1 Max, 27" Apple Studio Display, 32 GB SSD. Affinity Universal License for 2.0.

Mac User & Programmer since 1985 to date. Author of “SignPost” for vinyl sign cutting.

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  • 1 month later...
On 9/27/2021 at 1:10 PM, MaxClass said:

a proprietary format that other applications can’t read

They do contain preview thumbnails that several other apps have evidently figured out how to read, based on discussion in other threads.

 

This is really better handled by dedicated tools outside of the apps.  It is unrealistic to expect every app to implement a feature like this when there are solid tools and workflows which offer better and more universal protection and are dedicated to the task, thus offering what is likely to be much stronger security than can be expected of the individual applications.

For example, use drive encryption to keep the files secure locally on individual systems where it is being worked; this provides transparent encryption for all files on the encrypted drive, including any image files or other intermediate data which is not even in a native Affinity format.  In transit, use encrypted file transfer protocols such as sftp, transfer them over a trusted VPN connection, or use tools such as the newer versions of encrypted zip files or dedicated file encryption tools.  This again covers not only the Affinity documents themselves but also any non-native resources and related files that might need to accompany them, which an internal app-level encryption mechanism would not handle.

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