What is encryption, and how do I use it?

This document will briefly introduce the reader to the concept of encryption and how to use it in a school environment for secure emailing and storing sensitive documents.

What is Encryption?
This is a very brief overview as to what Encryption is and the tools at your disposal to start using encryption.

How to encrypt a USB drive
Staff computers will insist that all USB drives be encrypted before writing files – you can however still read existing documents without encryption.

How to encrypt / password protect individual Microsoft Office documents
This will show you how to use the features in Office 2016 to encrypt and password protect.

How to encrypt / password protect PDF documents using Adobe Acrobat 
This will show you how to use Adobe Acrobat Reader (Adobe Acrobat DC Pro) to encrypt and password protect your PDF’s.

How to encrypt single or multiple files using 7Zip or Bandizip 

This will show you how to use ZIP tools to compress, encrypt and password protect a file or multiple files suitable for emailing as a single attachment.

How to use Email encryption when sending personal information to external users

This will show you how to use your school outlook email account to encrypt emails that need to be sent to external email accounts (outside of the school, not intended for internal use).

Annex A – For external recipients, How to Open MHSF Encrypted Emails
This Annex is intended for external users to assist them to read MHSF encrypted emails.

What is Encryption?

In the current digital age, data is being stored at a constantly increasing rate on computer systems throughout the world. Unfortunately, there is always people out there who will try to find ways to manipulate and exploit the security of these systems and networks to steal people’s personal and companies sensitive information for their gain. Therefore, safety and security of this data is essential in the modern digital age.

At Mill Hill School Foundation we have a duty of care to keep pupil and employee data protected at all times and only accessible to the necessary individuals who have permission to do so. There has recently been a mass drive with GPDR to make sure people are aware and well informed about data protection and how to send and store information securely using methods such as encryption.

The reason is that we must all be vigilant as to what data we store and how our data is stored so that it is less vulnerable to security breaches or data theft, and also so that when we need to distribute or share information we can do so without concern that it will be intercepted and accessed by anyone who shouldn’t have access to it.

This tutorial will show you how to use some useful tools to keep data stored securely using encryption. Encryption is accepted as the security standard for storing and sending sensitive data. Encrypting a file will scramble the contents of a document or drive before storing or distributing it. Then the only way the data can be put back together and read or edited is if someone uses a the correct password to unlock it.

When would we need to use encryption?

Encryption is particularly important when any data leaves our network or the school. Whilst your data is on the MHSF network we use security permissions and other methods to keep the data safe. When files leave the MHSF network they become more vulnerable to being intercepted or forwarded to a malicious 3rd party.

What encryption tools do I have and how do I use them.

There are several tools at your disposal installed on your school PC’s and laptops which will allow you to add encryption to your documents and emails, below is a list of the applications we will look at in this document:

Bitlocker Office 2016 Acrobat Pro DC

7zip or Bandizip Outlook Email

How to encrypt USB drives

Note that staff are discouraged from using USB devices as they can contain infected files and are easily lost. Any USB device (personal or Foundation) plugged-in to a Staff computer will be read-only until the device is encrypted. The encryption process takes some time, and if the password is lost then there is no way to recover any files. WARNING: Apple Mac computers cannot read encrypted USB drives; it is also better to encrypt blank USB drives in case the encryption process fails.

To encrypt a blank USB drive, plug-in and select to Encrypt this drive...

When prompted, enter a password – ideally not your usual logon password as you may wish to share this drive with others.

Select the relevant option – we recommend you ensure you have a copy of any existing files before starting the encryption process.

If requested, unless the drive is only going to be used on this computer then select compatible mode.

Start encrypting. Encryption is slow – anything from 10 minutes to 4 hours depending upon drive size and computer specifications.

NOTE: IF YOU LOSE THE PASSWORD, THERE WILL BE NO WAY TO RECOVER THE FILES!

How to encrypt and password protect Microsoft Office Documents

Microsoft Word and Excel have options built in to secure your work documents with a password. This tutorial will take you through the stages of how to do this. We will be using Microsoft word for the examples, but the steps are the same in Excel. This can be useful if the document contains sensitive data or is stored on a computer, email or shared drive that has multiple users.

NOTE: IF YOU LOSE THE PASSWORD, THERE WILL BE NO WAY TO RECOVER THE DOCUMENT!

First you will need to open the word document you would like to encrypt and password protect. Once you have opened your document. You will find several tabs at the top of the window. Select the first tab which will be the File tab by clicking on it with you cursor.

Once you’ve clicked on the File tab you will need to click on the Info option, which will be the first option in the list of option on the most left of the screen. After you have done this it will bring you to the document information screen and you will see three options.

The first option is Protect Document. If you Click on this option you will next be presented with a drop down menu. The second option in the list will be Encrypt with a Password. Select this option by clicking on it with your cursor.

Once you have selected the Encrypt with Password option it will bring up a password box and ask to enter the password. Enter a password you would like to use and click OK. It will ask you to re-enter the password again to confirm it. Re-enter the password and select OK.

You will notice now that the information page has changed and the Protect Document option is now highlighted yellow. You can return back to your document by clicking on the arrow in the very top left of the screen. That’s it, your document is now protected.

If you close the document up and reopen the file it will now prompt you with a password box. Enter the password you previously set and click OK, now you will be able to view and edit the file.

Removing the password and encryption protection from the document

If for any reason you need to remove the protection from the document again, you will first need to get back to the information page by clicking on the File tab, then Info in the left hand pane and select Protect Document by clicking on it.

The password box will appear on screen with the password already filled in and represented with several asterisks. If you delete the password and leave the box blank and click OK. You will notice the Protect a document option is no longer highlighted yellow and your document will no longer need a password to open.

Changing the password and encryption protection from the document

If for any reason you need to change the password protection on a document. Then you will first need to get back to the information page by clicking on the File tab, then Info in the left hand pane and select Protect Document by clicking on it.

The password box will appear on screen with the password already filled in and represented with several asterisks. If you delete the password and enter a new password and click OK. It will ask you to confirm the password again by re-entering the password and then click OK. Your password has now been changed and you will need it for when you next need to open the document.

NOTE: IF YOU LOSE THE PASSWORD, THERE WILL BE NO WAY TO RECOVER THE DOCUMENT!

How to encrypt and password protect a PDF in Adobe Acrobat DC Pro

Before you can protect your PDF, you must first be sure that you are using a licensed version of Adobe. If the options later in this tutorial are greyed out. Then it is most likely that you are using a version that doesn’t have the features turned on.

NOTE: IF YOU LOSE THE PASSWORD, THERE WILL BE NO WAY TO RECOVER THE DOCUMENT!

First you will have to open a PDF document in Adobe Acrobat Reader DC Pro. Once you have opened the file you will need to click on the File tab in the top left of your screen and select Properties.

Once you in the properties menu you will notice that there are several tabs at the top of the window. As we are adding a password and encryption you will need to select the security tab which will be the second tab.

NOTE: If your security options are GREYED OUT then you are not running the correct version of the software and won’t be able to protect the document.

From the drop down menu, select Password Security, once you have clicked on it, it will open a new window, which will allow you to add a password and restrictions to your document such as editing and printing. Tick the box ‘Require a password to open the document’ at the top of the window.

This will now open up another window which is called Password Security. There are several options in this window such as permissions, which if you ticked will allow you set more in depth restrictions.

Though we are just interested in applying password protection to open a PDF in this tutorial.

Type your password in the Document open password box, and Adobe will let you know how secure your password is to the right of the box, and wont restrict you setting a basic password if required.

Once you entered your desired password, click on the OK at the bottom of the window and you will be prompted with a confirmation password box. Re-type your password from before and click OK.

NOTE: IF YOU LOSE THE PASSWORD, THERE WILL BE NO WAY TO RECOVER THE DOCUMENT!

Once you have clicked OK a message will appear letting you know that until you save the document and close it you won’t be prompted for the security password and can make changes to your setting.

Just click OK and if you want to test, close down the document and re-open it.

Now when you re-open the document it will first prompt you for a password. Enter the password you have just setup and click OK. Providing the password is correct he document will open up.

How to remove encryption and password protection from your PDF document

To remove the password, open the document and click on the file tab like before, go to properties and then to the security tab. Now select no security from the drop down menu, and click on OK at the bottom of the screen.

Password-Protecting Multiple PDF Document

Adobe Acrobat has batch processes for applying a common password to a selection of PDF documents. The process uses the Adobe Action Wizard, for example:

Create an action by going into Tools > Action Wizard > Create New Action.

Under Choose tools to add > click Protection > Encrypt > and click on + sign to add this to the right- hand panel (uncheck the box next to Prompt user).

Click Save & Export > Save > and add it to right-hand panel. (you can change output options by clicking on specify settings)

Click Save and give action a name. (for ex: Batch password). Go Action Wizard > Actions > Batch Password

Click on Add Files > select all the files you want to add password to and click Start.

How to encrypt single or multiple files using 7Zip or Bandizip

7-Zip and Bandizip are two (optional) tools that can be used to creating compressed, password- protected, encrypted archives. This allows you to encrypt either a single document or several documents with a password and email multiple documents as a single archive.

First, you will need to find the file or files that you want to encrypt. Below is an example of a folder on a desktop called Example, which has two documents inside named example document 1 and 2.

Next you will need to highlight the files or folders you would like to turn into an encrypted archive. Then using the your mouse, right click on the files and folders you have highlighted which will bring up some options (alternatively draw a selection box around all required files).

If 7zip is installed on your computer, then you will see an option for 7zip in the side menu that appears, select this followed by add to archive. If Bandizip is installed then you will see an option for Create and archive (Bandizip).

7zip: After clicking on add to archive, you will be taken to a screen which will allow you to enter a name i.e. EXAMPLE and select archive format zip. Finally add a password. This password will have to be shared if you intend on sharing the file with another person or group.

7-zip – for compatibility select ZIP archive format and enter password

Bandizip: After clicking on Create and archive (Bandizip), you will be taken to a screen which will allow you to enter a filename i.e. EXAMPLE and encryption password. This password will have to be shared if you intend on sharing the file with another person or group.

Bandizip – name file and enter password

The ZIP tools will create an encrypted archive and place it in the same location as the files or folders you are encrypting (unless specified otherwise).

You do not need 7-Zip or Bandizip to open an archive as most computers can open password- protected ZIP archives. Attempting to open the new archive EXAMPLE.zip will simply prompt for the password that was set earlier:

Enter the password in the box and click on OK and it will open a window like the one below:

This will allow you now to open the documents from the encrypted archive or drag them to you desktop or another location so that they can be saved locally. If you do this though and copy them out from the archive to a new location they will lose their encryption. Files are only encrypted whilst in the archive.

Extracting all files out of an archive.

To remove the encryption from the archive. You will need to right click on the archive file and select 7-Zip or Bandizip and then Extract Here. If you select to Extract Here, then it will place the files in the same location as the original archive. If you select to extract file (7-zip) or Extract to another folder (Bandizip) will let you browse to a new location and save your files. On entering the password your files will extract and you can delete the original archive if it is no longer needed.

How to encrypt and send an email

This is brief tutorial on how to send and receive encrypted emails using your Mill Hill school email account. It very easy with the new system to encrypt an email to send internally to staff or externally.

All you will need to do is compose a new email or reply to an existing email and place #encrypt in the main body of the text. Down near your signature or footer is preferable as seen highlighted below:

If you are sending the email internally there is no need to do anything further and the employee you are sending the email to will be able to open and read the email as usual with no further steps.

If you are sending an email to someone externally outside of the company then they will have to follow the next section ‘Opening Encrypted emails sent to external email accounts’

Annex A – For External Recipients, How to Open Encrypted Emails Sent By Mill Hill School Foundation

When the external user receives an encrypted email in their inbox, if they are using a Microsoft outlook account then they will be able to see the email without a problem in the inbox, the email will have a small header at the top letting them know the email was encrypted before being sent:

If the external user is trying to open this from a non-Microsoft account then they will be greeted with an email which will allow them to sign into a portal to read the message, which will look like the picture below:

Once you click on the Read the message button you will be taken to a screen that will allow you to either log in with a google account or Microsoft account. If the external user has neither of these accounts then it will allow them to use a onetime pass code.

One Time Pass Code

If the email recipient has neither a Microsoft nor a Google account, then they can still access the email message by requesting a one-time passcode, you can do so by clicking on sign in with one- time passcode:

When you click on this option it will send an email to the same account with a passcode attached which will be an eight digit code:

The one-time passcode provided must be used within 15 minutes of receiving it or it will expire and the user will have to request another code be sent to their email.

Once you receive the code you will need to enter it into the text box provided. If you click on the option to keep me signed in for 12 hours then there will be no need to get another code emailed over for 12 hours:

Once you have entered your one-time passcode or alternatively logged in with a Gmail or Microsoft account, you will be taken to the encrypted email where you will be able to read and reply to the message as usual.

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