Keeping Security on a database when it moves

  • Thread starter Thread starter ptheese
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ptheese

Hello, I have a database I created in Access 2003 that tracks project
statuses, employee capacity and creates reports for such items. The
database needs information such as employee salary and PTO earned, and
I don't want others to be able to see this info or the reports. I
created two levels of security, for admins with a password and for all
other users, only user id is required. Works great, blocks what I
want blocked. However, when the database is moved form my laptop to
any other location, the password protection does not follow the
database. Also, an other database I open from my laptop opens with
that security.

I want to put this on a shared drive for employees to update but want
to make sure the security stays with it, I don't want others to be
able to move it to thier computer and then view salary info etc.

Help?
 
Hi.
The
database needs information such as employee salary and PTO earned, and
I don't want others to be able to see this info or the reports.
Click to expand...

You don't want them to see this information, or the information is supposed
to be secure? If it's security you want, then don't store this data in
Access. Store it in a client/server database, such as SQL Server or Oracle.
I don't want others to be able to see this info or the reports. I
created two levels of security, for admins with a password and for all
other users, only user id is required.
Click to expand...

If only the User ID is required, and not a password, then this makes me
think you designed your own security instead of using the built-in
User-Level Security, unless either the non-Admins Group users have no
passwords, or else they're using a login form that programmatically supplies
the user's password. None of these alternatives is secure.
I want to put this on a shared drive for employees to update but want
to make sure the security stays with it
Click to expand...

If you implement User-Level Security, then the security _stays_ with the
database file. If you can open the database without being joined to the
workgroup that was used to secure it, then this means that the database has
not been secured properly. It's easy to miss a step or two, and it only
takes one missed step to leave a gaping hole in security.

For more information on implementing User-Level Security, please see the
following Web page for the Security FAQ:

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=207793

Study it and practice on a copy of your database a few times.
Also, an other database I open from my laptop opens with
that security.
Click to expand...

You'll be prompted for User ID and password while joined to any workgroup
where the default Admin user has a password set. The solution is to join
the default system.mdw workgroup information file, and then use Windows
shortcuts to open any secured databases. Try the following syntax for the
shortcut's target (all one line):

"<Full path to Office>\MSAccess.EXE" "<Full path to DB>\MyDB.MDB" /wrkgrp
"<Full path to secure workgroup>\Secure.MDW"

HTH.
Gunny

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