Microsoft® Access® 2010 Programmer's Reference

Chapter 25. Access 2010 Security Features

WHAT'S IN THIS CHAPTER?

• Managing security settings with the Office Trust Center

• Using Disabled mode

• Using Automation security

• Understanding Macro security in Access 2010

• Creating and using digital signatures and certificates

• Creating and extracting signed packages

• Access Database Engine Expression Service

• Understanding Sandbox mode

Now more than ever, you have to concern yourself with the security of your computer systems. One form of security — securing the information contained in and the intellectual property built into your databases — was discussed in Chapter 24.

Another form of security has to do with preventing malicious attacks on your computers—attacks that can delete files, spread viruses, or otherwise disrupt your work. This chapter focuses on the security enhancements built into Access 2010, which help you protect your computer systems and your users' computer systems.

In its efforts to make sure everything is secure, Microsoft had to deal with the fact that an Access database has a lot of power (something Access developers have known all along). And because of this power, someone who chooses to use Access maliciously can make an Access database perform destructive operations. In fact, that is the reason that Outlook does not allow Access database files to be sent as attachments. From a security perspective, an Access database file is essentially an executable.

To curb this power, beginning with Access 2003, Microsoft made changes to Access ...