![]() This approach ensures that text cannot be copy-and-pasted – all the hacker will see is the new text (zzzzzzzz). However, to best protect yourself, you should take a multi-level approach to redaction.įirst, add another text layer on top of the sensitive details and type random text – even ‘zzzzzzzzz’ should work. How to redact safelyĪccording to the research, redacting PDF documents with the built-in tools does work in most cases. This may not sound like a lot (86% of names could not be recovered), but it is still a concerning statistic when dealing with sensitive information. Their tests suggested that in 14% of cases they were able to recover people’s names from censored PDF files for instance. What does that mean? Consider the letter ‘i’ and the letter ‘w’ – i is quite narrow and w is quite wide so they both take up a different amount of space on screen.īy analyzing the size and shape of redacted text blocks, the researchers were able to make quite predictions about what the hidden text said. To see what was possible, they built a tool that could automatically analyze ‘glyphs’ the physical size and shape of redacted letters and phrases. Although portions of text could not be read in the original document, researchers were able to recover the hidden text by simply selecting the redacted section and then copying and pasting into a new document – the censored text was then clearly readable.įortunately, this flaw was only found in a handful of applications – and once alerted to the problem, the software developers have been working to create a fix.Ĭontinuing their investigation, the researchers then looked at other ways to try and recover redacted information. Some redaction tools simply do not workĭuring testing it was found that the redaction features in some PDF applications didn’t work as expected. You can highlight a portion of sensitive text and mark it to be redacted – the PDF creation software then ‘hides’ the text so it cannot be read.īut researchers have recently discovered this isn’t always the case. The redacted document could then be shared safely.īecause protecting sensitive information is important, many PDF tools now include redaction tools that perform a similar job. Historically, information on a copy of a paper-based document would be redacted by simply drawing lines across the sensitive details with a large, black sharpie marker. Redaction simply means making some information on a document unreadable. When this is the case, we ‘redact’ the information that needs to be protected. Sometimes however, you may not want to share all of the information on that document, just a few of the details. These files can then be emailed or shared quickly and easily. One of the most popular digital document formats is PDF (portable document format) which allows anyone to create a computerized version of a paper form – or any other document. Digitised information is easier and faster to process and ‘use’, creating a better experience for customers and employees. Digital documents are now an important part of most business and government operations.
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