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We need to set up a page to make some highly confidential documents (PDF, Excel, Word) available for viewing only.
The page/documents needs to be as secure as possible (no save, no print etc). We recon that we can't stop print-screen, but hopefully we can limit most of the other options.

How do you best do this? I have currently only two options that I am considering:

  • Open the documents inside an IFrame and experiment with javascript and css
  • Create a viewer in Silverlight (or Flash)

If any of you have some ideas on how to achieve this, please tell me. It will be much appreciated!

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femseks
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  • If you don't want an info or a document to be broadcasted. First, don't digitalize it. Second, don't put it on an internet page. Third, don't put it on an intranet page. Eventually, you could use a third-party solution (flash, silverlight or so)... find inspiration on similar website like http://www.scribd.com/ – JMax Oct 03 '11 at 07:48
  • We want to broadcast it -thats the problem. But the information is so sensitive that we need to make sure that the users reading it is not able to save it and forward it. – femseks Oct 03 '11 at 08:32
  • Please be aware that even with a presentation medium like Flash or Silverlight the user can always use a screen-capture program like Camtasia - I don't know if it's possible to hinder Windows to capture the screen (as, for example, you can hinder it to copy a password from a password textbox). – domke consulting Oct 03 '11 at 09:04
  • We know that screenshots is hard to "defend" against. But it is most important that we can prevent saving or printing of the document. – femseks Oct 03 '11 at 10:29

1 Answers1

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Word and Excel don't offer a lot of security. I would convert everything you want secured into a PDF and use something like the PDF viewer referenced in this question: Flash document viewer. It's an open source plugin that will allow you to disable save and print and should go a long way towards deterring users from attempting to copy the documents.

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Alain
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