Someone HACKED my locked excel document!!! Help

[ctjacobs2010]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Recently at work I sent out a locked and password protected document so no one could change anything, yet someone was able to breakthrough the passcode and change stuff and see information that was personal and confidential. I thought everything was secure and no one could get access to it and he was able to go around it with VBA and macros coding and get into the document and mess with things. I had no idea this was even possible and am now in dire straight to figure out how it was done and how to best prevent it from here on out. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!![/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Ctjacobs2010[/FONT]

 

[RoryA]

The only vaguely secure password in Excel is the one to open a workbook. It is against forum rules to describe methods of bypassing security, I'm afraid.

 

[ctjacobs2010]

By no means did I mean to break the rules or anything I am just trying to ensure it doesn't happen again

 

[RoryA]

Simple rule: if the data is in the workbook, it can be accessed, if someone is determined enough.

 

[spoon_db]

I'm using RAR.

Our admins said once that RAR provides better protections then Excel... so I create an archive with strong password - upper and lower letters, numbers and special symbols such as %, @, $... at least 10-12 symbols..

Of course I tried to brake this password with most free programs in the internet and they were right... So that's what I do if I've needed to protect something...

 

[ctjacobs2010]

what is RAR and how do I get it or use it. I am not familiar with this program

 

[RoryA]

That's not really going to help if you need to let them open it and fill it out. The protection used when locking a worksheet against changes, or a workbook against changing its structure, can be broken very quickly indeed. If you don't want them to access the data, don't put it in the workbook.

 

[ctjacobs2010]

You cant protect that from happening with any kind of VBA code?

 

[RoryA]

No. They could simply disable macros anyway, even if you could.

 

[Redwolfx]

If they used VBA to crack your password, you can Password protect the VBA so it is more difficult to be able to insert something new. Unfortunately it is still not fool proof.