Question

Excel offers a variety of tools to protect/secure valuable personal and company data such as marking the file as final, encrypting the file with a password, restricting permissions, and adding digital signatures. Please inform yourself of the various security levels that these controls offer.

Answer 1

Various level of Security levels offered by Excel are as follows

1. Protect an Excel file

To prevent others from accessing data in Excel files, we can protect Excel file with a password. This is used for file-level protection only, and not workbook or worksheet protection

2. Protect a workbook

To prevent other users from viewing hidden worksheets, adding, moving, deleting, or hiding worksheets, and renaming worksheets, we can protect the structure of your Excel workbook with a password.

3. Protect a worksheet - Excel

To prevent other users from accidentally or deliberately altering, moving, or deleting data in a worksheet, we can lock the cells on your Excel worksheet and then protect the sheet with a password

4. Lock or unlock specific areas of a protected worksheet

By default, on protecting a worksheet all cells are locked, so none of them are editable. To enable some cell editing, while leaving other cells locked, it is possible to unlock all the cells. We can lock only specific cells and ranges before you protect the worksheet and, optionally, enable specific users to edit only in specific ranges of a protected sheet.

5. Restrict changes to files in Excel

To prevent content reviewers from accidentally changing a Excel spreadsheet, we can use formatting and editing restrictions.

6. Mark as Final

Mark as Final is used to make Excel file read-only. When we mark as final, typing, editing commands, proofing marks are disabled or turned off, and the file becomes read-only, and the Status of the document is set to Final.

7. Adding Digital Signatures

A digital signature is an electronic, encrypted, stamp of authentication on digital information such as e-mail messages, macros, or electronic documents. A signature confirms that the information originated from the signer and has not been altered.

A digitally signed document becomes read-only to prevent any modifications.

Note - All the above options are available in File -> info ->Protect Workbook