Locking down propriety spreadsheets

[CFD]

Having a little issue with some of our companies spreadsheets. Peopl
outside the company are using password crackers to hack th
spreadsheets, and make changes, but are leaving our company name on th
results. Clearly we not only want to protect our IP, but also ensur
that our company is not associated with mangled spreadsheets, whic
might not produce the correct results.

A simple password protection won't work, as it is too easy to hack tha
... is there anyway that we can lock them down more strongly

 

[L. Howard Kittle]

Hi CFD,

A reply to a similar post from Dave Peterson:

If your intellectual property is that important, then don't use excel.
There's
nothing you can do to stop the theives from getting to your stuff.

Well, if you know anything about COM addins, you could compile your code.
But
that's beyond me.

Regards,

Howard

 

[CFD]

Well that sucks! Grrrr... so there is nothing we can do? Might have t
shift away from excel then- not worth us spending a bunch of tim
developing something our competitors can just steal. :mad

 

[edcosoft]

You could try several (or all of the following) things. Put a lot of
crucial data and/or formulas referrencing data and ficticious data, to
formulas on SEVERAL other Workisheets in the double letter columns,
then use Conditional Formatting to make text white, (use several
different CF formulas, Format to white text, hide columns, move your
curser to column A, protect the worksheets with different passwords,
hide the worksheets, make some more hidden worksheets with phony data
and formlas and refer to them on your working worksheet.
You can create so may frustrating problems for a hacker they wil just
give up, even though they cracked the passswords. You can build on
this with imagination. ed

 

[edcosoft]

Another trick to foil finding the Conditional formatting (after doing
it differently in several areas of the worksheet, an example
=istext($B$1)., then condition to "white fontt". and copy to whatever
you want blanked out. In another cell put = isblank($AA$16) formatted
"white font" and copy it to SOME OF the same cells.

Remember, all of this is for your phony data to give the hacker's the
run around. Preserve a clear path for your people to read and
construct without unravelling all the garbage you inventeted for
hackers. ed

 

[L. Howard Kittle]

Hi CFD,

Bear in mind my reply is not professional advice. Before you scraped the
whole idea, perhaps an inquiry to any of the MVP's here on the newsgroups,
several who have consultant firms, would be in order. I would think they
could enlighten you as to whether it is a 'bundle' or a 'small bundle'.

To name a few.

Chip Pearson
Microsoft MVP - Excel
Pearson Software Consulting, LLC
www.cpearson.com

http://www.allexperts.com/displayExpert.asp?Expert=2697

http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm

Ron de Bruin

Microsoft MVP - Excel

(e-mail address removed)



John Walkenbach



Don't know anything about what it cost to ask.


HTH
Regards,
Howard