Invision@adobeforums.com wrote:
> How would I set up a form to be down loaded from a web site, filled out with credit card information and sent via email by way of an email button. I need the form to be secure so if the email (and pdf attachment) happens to go to an unauthorized party, they are not able to open it without a password.
>
> Briefly, how secure are PDF fill-in forms?
>
> Thanks
Here are all of the options that I can think of:
1) Make your customer purchase Adobe Acrobat Professional. With
Acrobat, your customer can add password security to the document before
sending it back.
2) Make your customer purchase Adobe Acrobat Professional, as well as a
Digital Certificate. With these two pieces, the customer can encrypt
the PDF document before he/she sends it back to you.
3) Purchase Adobe LiveCycle Policy Server. This product would allow you
to apply a security policy to the document before it is downloaded.
This security policy will encrypt the document so that only the end-user
and your company can view the document.
4) Have the form data posted via HTTPS to a web application running on
your company's network. HTTPS will ensure that the data is encrypted as
it is being transferred.
Options 1 and 2 are not very reasonable, because you most likely cannot
dictate to your customers that they should buy a certain piece of
software. You would probably lose customers very quickly.
Option 3 is what many companies are not starting to use to protect
intellectual capital and sensitive customer and financial data. You
would have to purchase Policy Server and integrate it into your web
application, so this would be the most expensive solution.
Option 4 would satisfy your security requirements, but not the email
requirement. The cost of this solution would simply be your custom web
application development.
I can't think of any good way of encrypting the data before sending it
via email.
Hope this helps!
Justin Klei
Cardinal Solutions Group
www.cardinalsolutions.com