How safe are Excel passwords?

[darren]

Hi,
How hard is it to access data on an excel spreadsheet that needs a
passowrd to view it's contents? I say this as my PowerBook has been
stolen and has some password protected excel data on it.

Thanks.

 

[CyberTaz]

Most any program's password protection prevents inadvertent access by
someone who doesn't know the password, but anyone who is determined to get
into the file will find a way. It just depends on how much time & effort
they want to put into the task. The internet has put password circumvention
at the fingertips of anyone with an active connection.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[darren]

Blessings in disguise...
As the recent Office update left my Excel files unreadable by OSX,
opening files tries to start classic, OS9 wihich isn't installed, I've
had a bit of time to amend the sensative data.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Hi,
How hard is it to access data on an excel spreadsheet that needs a
passowrd to view it's contents? I say this as my PowerBook has been
stolen and has some password protected excel data on it.

Not hard at all. Especially internal passwords:

http://www.mcgimpsey.com/excel/removepwords.html

but also file/vba passwords:

http://www.mcgimpsey.com/excel/fileandvbapwords.html

Note that one doesn't even need XL to read data - a hex editor can often
recover most of the info.