Encrypting Your Database

Access 2007 includes a new feature to encrypt your database with a password. You can use this feature to prompt users for a password before opening the database. When you encrypt the database, Access makes the data unreadable to tools that can read binary data stored in the physical file.

To encrypt your database with a password, you must first open your database in exclusive mode. Click the Microsoft Office Button, and then click Open. Select your database, and then in the Open dialog box, click the arrow on the Open button, and then click Open Exclusive, as shown in Figure 25–4.

Figure 25–4: You must open your database in exclusive mode to encrypt the database with a password.

After your database opens, click the Encrypt With Password button in the Database Tools group on the Database Tools tab. Access opens the Set Database Password dialog box, as shown in Figure 25–5. Enter your password in the Password text box, and then reenter it in the Verify text box. Click OK, and Access checks to see whether the two passwords match. If the passwords match, the next time you open the database, Access prompts you for the database password.

Figure 25–5: Enter your password in the Set Database Password dialog box.

If you want to remove the password later, you’ll need to open the database in exclusive mode and then click the Decrypt Database button in the Database Tools group on the Database Tools tab. In the Unset Database Password dialog box, type your password in the Password text box, and then click OK. The next time you open the database, Access does not prompt you for a password.

Inside Out-How Useful Is Encryption? 

Encrypting your database does provide a thin layer of security, but it’s not foolproof. If you distribute this database to many users, each user has to know the password in order to open and use the database. Because all users need to share one common password, we don’t recommend encryption for multiple-user scenarios. If you’re creating this database for your own personal use, encrypting might be an option to keep other people out of your database. Just remember, however, a determined hacker could still gain access to your database given enough time and determination.