Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Using Password Recovery Software for MS Office

By Albert Von McZeally Albert Michael McZeally Alvin McZeally Alice McZeally

Most of us these days are aware of the fact that our electronic data is not safe. Anyone on the web with a little know-how could access our computer over the Internet and get into our files. To keep our electronic data safe it is important to remember to password protect your MS Office documents. Password protecting documents takes very little effort and will prevent important or sensitive files from falling into the wrong hands.

By placing a password on your important files you are ensuring that your documents are safe from those who would seek to exploit it, such as identity thieves. If you own a company you will want to do the same for your financial information as well as and documents that contain info about your clients. While you may not think it is important now, if the data should ever get stolen you will be thankful for it.

There is one small downside to password protecting your documents " what happens if you lose the password to a file? While you probably like to write down the passwords to your documents somewhere, this is not very safe as someone could find them and all your documents would be at risk. At the same time if you dont write them down you run the risk of losing all your important data if you forget the passwords associated with the files.

This is where you need a password recovery tool. There are several different types of programs available that can help you get into your files. While some of them are free, you will have much better success with a licensed version of password recovery software as they offer more options and have more streamlined recovery algorithms.

Initially the program will try to open your document using a combination of letters and number to see if it can guess the right password. This may work to gain entry into your files, but if you used a long or complicated password that includes a variety of characters and symbols it may not succeed.

To start the program will work through the dictionary, combining each word with numbers or symbols if you request. If your password is an actually word, then you should have some success here. Otherwise the software recovery tool will carry on to the next step, which is to try combinations of letters, numbers and symbols until it finds the right combination. The more complicated your password is, the longer the program will take to find the answer.

Finally the password recovery software can simply disable the password protection on the file. This is where you want to be careful, as once the password protection is removed then your files are again in danger. Ensure you quickly protect them again once you have got in, and remember the password this time!

While this type of software is a great tool to use when you forget your password, it should not replace whatever method you use to keep track of your passwords. Create a bomb-proof file with a long and complicated password to store the keys to your other files, and commit the password to this file to memory " do not write it down, or if you do keep it in a safe place where no one will find it. Then you can rest knowing that all your files are safe and sound.

When you are password protecting your documents, think about saving your password in a secure document that uses one password to open but includes all your passwords. This way is very simple to access and not very complicated to open if you do. This way there is never a moment where you cant open a document or file. - 16738

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