Drumlin Security

If you know who your users are, then it is possible to create secured files that are 'pre-authorized' which makes the whole process simpler for both yourself and especially, for the end user. This is particularly useful if you have large numbers of documents to provide securely to a fixed group of known users. Click here for a flash video demo of this facility

As before, the steps are:

1. Download, install and register the free Drumlin reader/publisher software (to obtain the software for Drumlin V4 please Download from here  - 2.4 Mb zip file)

Now, instead of creating a 'fully secured DRMX file' we will create a Basic DRM file.

2. Use the File menu, Publish option and select a test PDF on your PC/network for secure publishing - choose the Basic DRM file option and set the other options you would like to use as controls (e.g. View=5, Print=0, End date=31st December 2010) and press the OK button. You need to have an active Internet connection at this stage

3. Drumlin then sends strongly encrypted control information (NOT THE PDF FILE ITSELF) to our server. This includes the information necessary to identify your file (including the file name, your details and the controls you have applied) together with other security information. This information is stored on the server. At the same time your PDF file is strongly encrypted and the encrypted version is saved on your PC/chosen location with the file extension .DRM. Your original PDF file remains unchanged.

4. You can now use your Drumlin file menu, Open option, to open and view the DRM file you have created. This file has the security controls you applied and is immediately readable, so does not require separate authorization or access to the central DRM service. This sounds great, is very quick and easy, but actually anyone can read this DRM file if they have a Drumlin reader, which is probably not the result you wanted! To make sure it can only be read by a specific user or group of users you need to have access to the UserLists facility. By default this is not enabled in your Publishing screen, so contact us by email if you wish to have the facility enabled.

5. To specify which users are allowed to open your DRM file you must create a list of these with their Drumlin userIDs. The process is described in the Welcome PDF, Publishing Facilities section, User Lists subsection (please Click here for the V4 Welcome guide). Once you have selected the users for whom the document or documents apply, you publish them exactly as in step 3, above. You can then supply the DRMs to the relevant users and they can open them immediately using Drumlin, but other people cannot access them. If you need to add or alter the list of users permitted to open the documents you can do this by re-publishing the documents with a new list or by modifying the list using a utility program we can provide. 

6. There are lots of checks and log files to make sure that as far as possible this all works smoothly. However, if there are questions or problems these can generally be sorted out very quickly. Facilities for this include:

(a) a file called PublishingHistory.csv on your PC somewhere like:

C:\DocumentsandSettings\<username>\Application Data\DrumlinSecurity\Drumlin

which is very useful, as it contains lots of information about your publishing activities.... and
(b) there are several other files like this in the same location which are useful... such as the Drumlin.History file (can be opened with Notepad etc), AuthorisationHistory.xml and in the logs subdirectory, a full log file of usage of Drumlin and any issues or errors that arise
(c) Within Drumlin itself there are facilities on the Help menu to assist end users. These include the Welcome document, the links to online help and faqs, the Updates... facility for automated updating of their software, and the ABOUT form, which includes a SEND LOG FILE button... this latter facility automatically sends the user's log file and settings file to our support desk by email in case of problems that cannot easily be resolved
(d) users can double-click on a DRM or DRMX file to open it with Drumlin. If they do this with a DRMX file it will ask if they wish to authorize it - if they have done so already it will detect this. Users should not try and re-authorize a document as this will generally fail (because the code they have used will typically have been used already)
(e) user activity is logged on our central servers, so it is possible for use to identify end-user issues and actvities remotely. It is also possible for us to report on such activities to the relevant publsiher and to enable/disable documents and users if absolutely necessary

7. Publishers often have special requirements. By default the free service provides the core software and service publishers require. However, there are many additional facilities and services available - Please contact us by email if you have any questions and look at our PDF-Publishing web site and the other pages on this web site for more information and advice

Drumlin V4 information: To obtain the software for Drumlin V4 please Download from here  (2.4 Mb zip file). A copy of the Welcome document describing the V4 software is available - Click here for the V4 Welcome guide (PDF) which describes the software and how to publish documents.

USAGE TERMS: This service is provided on the basis that it may not be used for commercial gain by third parties and may not be used to promote indecent, racist, terrorist or any other materials likely to offend or provoke hatred. Drumlin Security reserve the right at any time to disable documents or users from the service if breaches of the License or usage terms are identified. Please see the About page for more details