Access 2016 Advanced

Lesson 9 – Using Access Database Security

Access 2016

E NCRYPTING A D ATABASE WITH A P ASSWORD

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Discussion

You can encrypt an Access database to protect it from unauthorized use. Ideally, it is a better practice to encrypt a secured database, as any user can open and work with objects in a database where no security measures or permissions have been defined. When you encrypt a database, Access compresses it, and it becomes unreadable by utility programs or word processors. Decrypting a database removes the encryption.

Assign a password to a database so that only those users who know the password can open or make changes to the database. Assigning a password protects the database, not the database objects from unauthorized users. Database objects are protected when user-level security is established.

Passwords are case-sensitive and can be up to 20 characters. They can contain any combination of letters, numbers, symbols, and spaces, excluding the characters " \ [ ] : | < > + = ; , . ? * , leading spaces, and ASCII 10-31 control characters.

A database must be open for exclusive use to assign or remove a password. After a password is assigned, you are prompted for the password each time you open the database.

Password protection and encryption are combined in one easy step. The encryption feature only applies to files with the .accdb file extension, and uses strong algorithms.

NOTE If you choose to encrypt an older database (with the .mdb file extension), Access uses password and encoding features from Access 2003. If you forget the assigned password, you cannot open the database.

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Procedures

1. Open the desired database in Exclusive mode.

2. Select the File tab

on the Ribbon .

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