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PDF Protect Features
 COMPLETE PDF PROTECTION AND CONTROL OF DOCUMENT USAGE
PDF protection that enables you to prevent, allow or control the following functions:
- Viewing, copying, modifying and saving documents and contents
- Use of your documents in thin client environments (e.g. Citrix). This enables you to prevent users installing one common copy for all available envrionment users.
- Printing documents. You can lock a PDF from printing (prevent printing) or specify the number of times your documents can be printed.
- How many times your protected PDF documents can be viewed
- How long your protected PDF documents can be viewed (days, months, years, forever)
- How long users can view a protected PDF document offline: always n number of days or they must connect every time to the administration server before they can view your protected documents
- Use of Windows print screen and screen grabber applications - stop users taking screen shots of your protected PDF documents
- Printing to file, email, PDF format (Acrobat distiller, etc.), common image printers, etc. are automatically prevented
- Sharing protected PDF documents is prevented since users must have first registered with you and have the correct license and decryption keys in order to view a protected PDF file. Decryption keys are stored encrypted and locked to individual computers, thus ensuring they cannot be shared
- Expire and revoke distributed protected PDF documents at any time, automatically revoke access once view and/or print limits have been reached, manage offline access, and enforce content management system security policies no matter where your documents are
- Change the number of print and view allowances even after distribution
- Enable document printing on a document or individual user basis
- Suspending documents if you don't want them viewable for a period of time, and alter their expiry dates
- Enforce your own house style and appearance by ensuring that protected PDF documents may only be seen in the format you have decided.
 PDF PROTECTION THAT IS SIMPLE TO USE
Safeguard's PDF protection provides complete PDF protection for even the most novice of users.
To protect PDF documents, right click on them in Windows Explorer and select the secure PDF document access rights (use of printing - including how many times, etc.), press the OK button and your PDF files are instantly protected (PDF files are encrypted and document usage rights applied). PDF documents can be published on their own or assigned to publications for simple administration.
Multiple PDF files can be selected in Windows Explorer and you can choose the same PDF protection usage and access rights in one click. Or you can automatically batch protect PDFs without user intervention using our pdf command line encryption tool.
Distribute your protected PDF documents just like any other file - upload them to your web site or send them out on CD-ROM, DVD, etc., knowing that they will always be secure. Dynamic document control maintains access rights and permissions assigned to a secure PDF document once it has been published and distributed.
 BATCH PDF PROTECT - NO USER INPUT REQUIRED
Batch PDF file protection enables you to effortlessly batch protect PDF documents without user intervention. See optional pdf command line encryption.
Safeguard's PDF protection Command Line Utility allows the automation of actions that would otherwise have had to be carried out manually whilst protecting PDF documents through the Writer GUI. Commands can be run from the DOS prompt or a batch file without the need for manual input or user intervention. All the PDF protection options available through the Safeguard Writer GUI can be accessed through the command line utility.
This PDF protection feature can also be used by organizations internally to rapidly protect documents for secure distribution and to control what DRM protection features are made available to sub-administrators.
 UNIQUE CONCEPT OF PUBLICATIONS MAKES DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SIMPLER
Use of publications ensures minimum administration overheads and enables you to effortlessly manage your user base. The concept of the publication is a way of associating documents that are logically related. Different enterprises may see this in different ways:
- a publisher could see it as the issues in a subscription
- a training course provider could see it as the content of a course
- a lawyer could see it as the items making up a bundle
- a businessman could see it as the collection of documents making a bid
So being able to bring together collections of documents to create a publication, makes the administration of connected documents easier for the publisher, and simplifies how they are used by the user.
If you choose to publish your PDF documents as separate items, then each one will have it's own encryption key. However, where users are purchasing subscriptions to publications they expect to register their subscription once and then be able to read each issue as it arrives. Also, you as the publisher may find it easier to associate documents with publications.
To meet this operational flexibility, if PDF documents are protected as something in a publication, the encryption key of the publication is used to protect it rather than generating a new random key. This means that the user is able to immediately use a new issue regardless of how you ship it to them (eMail, flash card, CD-ROM for instance). Of course if you send them a protected PDF document that is not part of a publication that they have been granted access to then they will have to connect to the administration server to retrieve the new key. And if you set the rules so that they must connect before using your protected PDF documents then that will be enforced.
Safeguard enables you to manage your subscription base effortlessly by providing individual publication expiry on a per user basis - you can expire a user's access to different publications at different times, and manage this all from a single user account.
 DOCUMENT WATERMARKING
For additional PDF protection against photos or photocopies being taken, you can add custom text, system data, and image watermarking to a document. This is displayed when a protected PDF document is printed and/or viewed in the Secure PDF Viewer software. The following items can be displayed - images, custom text, system data (date/time, user name, company name, email address). System data is dynamically applied when the protected PDF document is displayed and/or printed, ensuring you only ever have to protect a document once in order to customize it for multiple users.
Watermarks can be prevented from displaying on the first page of your documents (useful if you want your cover page and branding to appear unmarked whilst the rest of the document is watermarked) and behind or in front of your PDF content.
User information can be displayed to deter photocopying, and the use of moiré images (available for free download from the LockLizard web site) can be used to ensure photocopying produces extremely poor quality copies.
 USER AND DOCUMENT EXPIRY, INCLUDING INSTANT REVOCATION FOR PREVIOUSLY DISTRIBUTED DOCUMENTS AND PERSISTENT VERSION CONTROL
User expiry
Safeguard's PDF protection gives you total control over when user accounts expire and when access to your PDF documents expire. You may want to, for example, give users access to documents during a specific time period, and let them be able to view those documents in the future, but not access any new ones you publish.
Publication expiry
Safeguard's PDF protection enables you to control expiry to your publications on an individual user and publication basis. Users, for example, may have subscribed to one of your publications for a year, and all documents in that publication are accessible to them for a year. After a year, they will still be able to view their existing documents, but not any new ones that are published after their subscription period has ended, unless of course they subscribe for an additional period. Users can subscribe to multiple publications, each with their own expiry period.
Document expiry
Safeguard's PDF protection also enables you to control document expiry (PDF expiration). Regardless of a users subscription to your publications you may have certain documents that are time sensitive and must not be usable after a certain date. It also means you can sell documents that are accessible for a limited time period at a lower cost, rather than being available forever, enabling you to reach new markets that are price sensitive. You can be sure that those users can only view a protected PDF document for a day or a week, or whatever you choose. This PDF protection feature also ensures that only the authorized or current versions of documents are used after publication because obsolete versions can no longer be accessed.
 
Protected PDF documents can also be set to automatically expire once a specified number of views and/or prints have been reached. You can specify both an expiry date and a number of views (e.g. 10 views and expiry 5 days from first use) and whatever expiry option is reached first will cause the document to expire.
Instant revocation
With Safeguard's PDF protection you can force users to connect to the administration server (happens transparently) before they can view your protected PDF documents. This can be every time they want to view your protected PDF documents or after a certain number of days. If you choose a number of days then after the length of time you set has passed users must go back online to gain further access.
Using this PDF protection option you can instantly revoke user access to previously distributed documents as the access approval required to view your protected PDF documents is instantly expired.
 COMPLETE OFF-LINE PDF PROTECTION
Your controls are locked into each protected PDF document so there is no need for users to connect to the Internet in order to view your protected PDF files (assuming of course that they have the correct decryption key stored on their computer).
Whether you want users to connect to the Internet or not to use your protected PDF documents is a decision you make when protecting your PDF documents.
 PDF PRINT CONTROL - PDF PRINT PROTECTION TO STOP OR LIMIT PRINTING
Safeguard's PDF protection gives you complete control over printing of your protected PDF documents. Stop printing of your protected PDF documents on Windows, Mac or all operating systems.
If you decide to allow printing you can control how many times your protected PDF documents can be printed. Document access can be automatically revoked once this number has been reached.
 CUSTOMIZABLE MESSAGE TEXT AND SPLASH SCREEN
When you set up user accounts on the administration server, users are automatically sent an email to the address you entered with a download link to the Secure PDF Viewer software and their license file. This email is automatically customized with your company name and email address in it so users know who to contact if they have any problems accessing your PDF documents.
You can also specify the text that will be displayed if a user does not have the correct decryption key present to view your protected PDF documents - e.g. where they can purchase a license from or who to contact.
Each time a protected PDF document is loaded, a splash screen can be displayed. You can insert your own image here (say your company logo and maybe a brief message) to customize Safeguard's PDF protection to represent your company image.
Enforce your corporate branding. With Safeguard PDF Security you can require protected PDFs to open in particular formats, and can prevent users from being able to change to another style of presentation. This allows you to enforce your own house style and appearance.
 WEB BASED ADMINISTRATION
Safeguard PDF Security comes with its own simple to use web-based administration system, enabling you to control and revoke access to your secure PDF documents in real-time even after distribution.
Once you have protected PDF files, it is a simple matter of setting up users on the administration system (user name, company, email address) and allowing them to use one or more of your publications or documents. Each protected PDF document that belongs to a particular publication will then be accessible to all users that have subscribed to that publication.
The administration system can handle a large number of users, documents, and publications, and you can perform actions on multiple users, documents, and publications in one go. Safeguard records all the document protection options for each individual document on the administration system, and you can customize record displays, add and edit descriptions. For extra security, a manual logon/logoff process is used.
 DATA IMPORT / EXPORT
Safeguard enables you to import user data into the LockLizard Administration system, and export user, document, and publication information to separate CSV files. Exporting information in a CSV format makes it readily accessible for spreadsheet manipulation and analysis. CSV importing means you can interface systems that do not obey consistent standards.
 ADVANCED SEARCH AND SORT FILTERS
Safeguard provides advanced search and sort filters. You can search by ID, name and/or email, display records in date or alphabetical order, and specify the number of records displayed on each page. You can show only specific classes of user accounts (e.g. only users that have registered, or whose accounts have expired), or documents that have been published to a specific publication or have limited prints/views allocated to them.
The system has been designed with flexibility in mind, so you can search and filter certain subsets of information and then perform specific actions on those selections.
 USER & SYSTEM AUDITING
The administration system records the date, time and IP address of users when they first connect to the server to obtain their decryption keys. It also records whether a user has tried to register with you more than once (i.e. on another computer), when this occurred, and the IP address they were using.
Further, the administration system also logs when administrators log on, when they performed an action (ie. adding, deleting, or modifying a record), and when this occurred.
 STATISTICS
In the statistics section, the dashboard provides you with a summary of users, documents, and publications, backups and system level actions.
This includes:
- Total number of users, unregistered users, registered users, suspended users, last registered user, expired users, deleted users, last added, last deleted, last import, last export, last batch changes made
- Total number of documents, suspended documents, expired documents, last published, last export of document information
- Total number of publications, last added, last export
- Last logon, last action of an administrator.
Selecting an entry shows more detailed information. For example, clicking on 'suspended documents' will display all the documents that are suspended.
System activity logs detail what system events have occurred (admin logon, addition/edit/deletion of records).
Pie charts provide a quick visual summary of the principal system details.
 CHOICE OF LICENSE DELIVERY
User licenses can be sent automatically by email (either as an attachment or as an embedded link) or you can choose to display them on a web page (in conjuction with the ecommerce module) for instant license delivery. You can also choose whether individual users are sent license files, and can resend registration emails if they have been blocked by SPAM filters or deleted by mistake by the user.
Every license file emailed from the administration system can also be sent to a monitor email address of your choice so that a record is available of who has been sent their license files, which you may also use to resend licenses. You can use LockLizard's email system or enter your own SMTP settings.
 E-COMMERCE INTEGRATION FOR A 24x7 SERVICE
Ecommerce integration enables you to automate your entire sales process so there is no manual intervention. See optional ecommerce integration.
You can integrate Safeguard's PDF protection with your existing e-commerce system to help provide a totally automated secure document distribution service. Once users pay or are authorized to use a document or publication, their details are automatically set up on the administration server and assigned the appropriate publication / document access rights. License file information is sent out automatically by email so users can view your protected PDF documents straight away.
 CHOICE OF HOSTING ARRANGEMENTS
You can either use our managed service (hosted on our own servers so no set up configuration required), or you can host the administration system on your own server (we can even set up the system for you or you can choose to do this yourself).
Hosting on our servers requires a $250+ yearly maintenance fee but ensures you are up and running from day one as no server configuration is required at your end - saving you time, hassle and money.
Regardless of who hosts the administration system, you always protect PDF files locally on your own computer and distribute them just like any other file (from your web site, by email, CD-ROM, etc.).
 LIMITLESS PDF PROTECTION - NO LIMIT TO THE NUMBER OF PDF DOCUMENTS YOU CAN PROTECT OR THE NUMBER OF USERS
Unlike other products, our PDF protection software lets you protect as many PDF documents as you want and manage as many users as you want for no additional cost. There is no limit to the number of PDF documents you can protect or the number of users you have viewing those protected PDF documents.
 FREE SECURE PDF VIEWER SOFTWARE
Users can download the Secure PDF Viewer software totally free of charge, either from our web site or from yours or you can distribute it freely via email.
The Secure PDF Viewer can either be installed on a computer or run directly from any USB stick (no installation, registration, or Internet connection required) - Secure USB Viewer.
Our free stand-alone Secure PDF Viewer has a small footprint (so users don't have to spend hours downloading and installing Adobe Acrobat), is fast to load, and ensures all the DRM controls are applied without exposing you, as the publisher, to known Adobe PDF security issuess, plug-ins (see Adobe PDF plug-in vulnerabilities) or insecure JavaScript (which also puts users computers at risk from being hacked). It is not invasive and does not use root kit technology.
Protected PDF documents are decrypted on-the-fly in memory. They are never saved to disk in temporary format or to the Windows swap file. We do not create extra files on disk that can be copied to another computer along with the protected PDF files so they can be easily shared and viewed.
Viewer updates can be enforced to ensure that users are always using the latest version.
 TRANSPARENT REAL-TIME WEB BASED user AUTHORIZATION
Safeguard's PDF protection ensures users don't have to worry about entering passwords (we don't use them) or managing decryption keys.
When a user views one of your secure PDF documents for the first time, the Secure PDF Viewer software will check if it has the correct key to view it. If it does not, the Secure PDF Viewer will check with the administration server to see if the user has been granted access to the protected PDF document. If access is allowed then the decryption key will be transparently relayed to the client. If not, your custom message will be displayed telling the user how to contact you for access.
 GOVERNMENT STRENGTH PDF PROTECTION FOR YOUR DOCUMENTS
To ensure complete PDF protection, your PDF documents are encrypted using industry-standard encryption - the US Government approved algorithm, AES, at its strongest setting, 256 bits.
Encryption allows us to enforce the digital rights management controls applied to your protected documents.
 NO PASSWORDS TO SEND, ENTER, MANAGE, FORGET OR PASS ON TO OTHERS
Safeguard's PDF protection does NOT use passwords. Strong public key technology is used rather than weak password mechanisms that are easily crackable. Not using password protection ensures bullet-proof protection of your PDF documents - since there is nothing to enter the system is not vulnerable to password attacks.
You don't have to distribute passwords to users and they don't need to type in access codes to get going. Decryption keys are transparently relayed to the client computer and stored in encrypted format. There are no passwords to enter, manage, compromise, forget or pass on to others.
Whilst we use public key technology, no key management is required by you as the publisher or by users, as it is all handled transparently by the licensing system. There are no certificates to revoke when you want to terminate a users access or any other PKI complexity.
LockLizard provides a secure exchange mechanism in order to move the required key down to the user's desktop at the same time as validating the user's authorization to receive the key. Keys are seamlessly delivered to user's computers.
Whilst user keys are stored on the user's computer, they are also locked to that computer and cannot be moved. So the user must be at that computer in order to be able to use the licensed documents. Any attempt to move the keys system to another computer will invalidate it.
 COMPLETE PDF PROTECTION - NO PDF SECURITY RISKS
Safeguard's PDF protection uses it's own decryption application (a Secure PDF Viewer) rather than relying on a plug-in to present your information. This ensures the security of your information is always under the tightest of controls, and is not vulnerable, or exposed to any errors in third party applications. Protected PDF documents are decrypted in the Secure PDF Viewer which applies the necessary PDF DRM controls and ensures your PDF content cannot be compromised by other applications, JavaScript, plug-in failures or conflicts, or the common Adobe PDF security flaws and cracks.Read this article published by Bryan Guignard, an Adobe Certified expert on why we don't use Adobe's implementation / Adobe plug-in for PDF protection.
Information is decrypted on-the-fly and is not saved to disk in temporary format or to the Windows swap file. We do not create extra files on disk that can be copied to another computer along with the protected PDF files so they can be easily shared and viewed.
To ensure total PDF protection for your source files, you protect PDF documents on your own computer. The source PDF files (unprotected files) are never exposed to a web server where they could be easily compromized.
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