Chapter 12: Protecting and Securing Your Database with the Operating System

Overview

A Microsoft Access system is a collection of files: a workgroup file, a front-end database, a back-end database and a locking database. This chapter tells you why and how you can use a modern operating system to protect and secure this file collection. If you are not the person who can actually make the changes to the system, I have deliberately set up this chapter so that you can show your system administrator how it works on your own computer. Regardless of who sets up the operating system security, you will end up with databases that only a select group of Windows users can access. If you want to go one step further, the instruction material will show you how to make it difficult for that select group of users to copy any of the files that make up your database collection.

If you are wondering how applicable this information may be to you, consider this scenario. You are running a small company with 15 people. These people all share the same Windows server on your network. You have a database that holds important customer details in it, and you have now decided that you would like only five staff to make changes to that data and another two staff to administer the database. What will you do? Read on, because this chapter will demonstrate how folder permissions will restrict usage of your Access database to the seven Windows accounts, and it will show you how the two administrators can also have the required permissions to do all the necessary administration tasks .

There is no download material for this chapter ”rather, I've included a series of step-by-step demonstrations of how you might set up operating system security by using the Windows 2000 Professional operating system. You'll also find supplementary information on how you might undertake the same task by using Windows XP Professional. You can find a full description of the steps you need to take to set up Windows XP security together with the code download, but I've also included hints on how Windows XP differs from Windows 2000 within the chapter. The operating systems to which this information is applicable include Windows XP Professional, Windows 2000 Professional, Windows 2000 Server, and Windows 2003 Server. The only instructions that are applicable to Windows XP Home are those that describe how to use Windows XP Home to gain permission to use a protected folder on another computer in a peer-to-peer network.