Home
Securing your data
HCL Notes® security enables you to protect your workspace and data at all times, so only you and the people you designate have access to your data.
Changing passwords
Passwords prevent others from using your User ID. When your administrator creates your User ID, he or she decides whether it needs a password, and what type of password is required. Once you access HCL Notes® for the first time, you should change your password to something that you can remember but is hard for others to guess.
Security Basics
You can do any of the common security procedures listed below, which relate to how you are identified in HCL Notes®, your login and password settings, and your logout settings.

Securing your data
HCL Notes® security enables you to protect your workspace and data at all times, so only you and the people you designate have access to your data.
- Your Notes User ID and how to store it
- Changing passwords
  Passwords prevent others from using your User ID. When your administrator creates your User ID, he or she decides whether it needs a password, and what type of password is required. Once you access HCL Notes® for the first time, you should change your password to something that you can remember but is hard for others to guess.
  - Using your password with other Notes-based programs
    You may use other applications that are based on HCL Notes® technology. For example, you might use a program that accesses data from a Notes database. When you use these programs, usually you enter your Notes password to access the data. If you have Notes open in the background, and you are working in a Notes to remember your password, so you don't have to enter your password multiple times.
  - Synchronizing your Notes® and Domino® Web/Internet password
    If your administrator has enabled it, you can synchronize your Notes® password with your Domino® Web/Internet password, enabling you to use your Notes password for both Notes and Internet access.
  - Synchronizing your Windows password with your Notes password
    Although you can eliminate Notes® password prompts by using the Client Single Logon feature to synchronize your Windows® password with your Notes password, the recommended way to eliminate Notes password prompts is to use the Notes shared login feature instead.
  - Password checking
    To increase password security, your administrator may have set password checking on your home server. Using password checking, your administrator can prevent reuse of a password and can force you to change your password after a certain amount of time.
  - Changing your ID file encryption strength
    HCL Notes® keys are stored in the Notes ID file, and are encrypted with a key derived from the ID file password. When you change your password, you have the option of using a strong Notes document encryption key to encrypt the keys in the ID file.
  - Security Basics
    You can do any of the common security procedures listed below, which relate to how you are identified in HCL Notes®, your login and password settings, and your logout settings.
  - What to do if your password is compromised
    If you think that someone knows your password and can access your information, you should change your password, enable password checking on your mail server, and create new public keys.
- Using Notes shared login to eliminate Notes password prompts
  Notes® shared login (hereafter shared login) allows you to start HCL Notes and use your User ID without having to provide a Notes password. You only need to log in to Microsoft® Windows® using your Windows password. Your administrator controls whether you can use shared login.
- Locking the Notes ID
  Locking your HCL Notes® ID prevents others from using Notes when you are away from your computer. Locking your ID clears your Notes credentials and drops all connections to Notes servers. You must log in again in order to take any new action using Notes.
- Enabling Smartcards for Notes® login
  Smartcards resemble credit cards, but instead of containing a magnetic strip they contain a microprocessor and memory. You can use a Smartcard with your User ID to login to HCL Notes®, provided you have a Smartcard reader installed on your computer. Once your User ID is enabled for Smartcard login, you are prompted for your Smartcard Personal Identification Number (PIN) in place of your Notes password.
- Requesting a new user name
  If you want to request a new User Name - for example, if you got married and you want to change your name - you must contact your administrator.
- Your Notes® and Internet names
  You can view all the names that identify you in Notes®.
- Sending mail to your administrator
- Accessing servers using certificates
  A certificate is an electronic stamp, like a stamp on a passport, which verifies to a server that you are who you say you are. Certificates are stored in your User ID. When you first receive your User ID from your administrator, it contains a Notes® certificate. You may decide to use Internet certificates as well. (You may see Internet certificates being referred to as X.509 certificates.)
- The Access Control List
  Every database includes an access control list (ACL), which HCL Notes® uses to determine the level of access users and servers have to a database. Levels assigned to users determine the tasks that users can perform on a database. Levels assigned to servers determine what information within the database the servers can replicate.
- Restricting access to local databases
  When you enable encryption for a local database, HCL Notes® encrypts the database using your public key from your User ID. You are the only one who can then decrypt the database because you have the corresponding private key in your User ID. Nobody else's User ID can open the database.
- Notes data
  You can restrict access to applications you have stored locally or encrypt a document in an application.
- Preventing others from reading or viewing specific documents
  You can protect your documents, so that only you and the people you designate can read them, even if others have access to the database your documents are in.
- Encrypting documents using secret keys
  Using a secret encryption key that is stored in your User ID, you can encrypt a document that you are posting in a public database, provided the document contains fields that are encryptable.
- How Notes® uses public and private keys for encrypting and signing mail
  HCL Notes® uses a public and private key set to encrypt and decrypt data, as well as to validate digital signatures. The public and private key in a set are mathematically related to each other and are unique to your User ID. Your public key is stored in your Notes certificate. Your certificate is stored in your User ID and the HCL Domino® Directory. Your private key is stored only in your User ID.
- Restricting execution access with the Execution Control List
  You can protect your workstation by specifying different types of execution access for different people or organizational certifiers who run HCL Notes® scripts and formulas. For example, you may give all types of execution access to your HCL Domino® administrator, but allow no execution access to unsigned scripts or formulas.
- Securing your POP3, IMAP, or LDAP accounts
  HCL Notes® supports Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), which makes communication secure for your POP3, IMAP, or LDAP accounts. SSL encrypts the data that is sent between your Notes client and the server you specify for your account. Notes supports SSL versions 2.0 and 3.0. By default, Notes negotiates the best SSL version to use with a particular server.
- Signed plug-ins
  Your administrator may have selected plug-ins to be installed automatically with your client software. These plug-ins are signed with a certificate that is trusted by your client, and verified that the data they contain is not corrupted. Plug-ins signed in this way can then be installed without having to prompt you to accept them.

Security Basics

You can do any of the common security procedures listed below, which relate to how you are identified in HCL Notes®, your login and password settings, and your logout settings.

Click File > Security > User Security (Macintosh OS X users: Notes > Security > User Security), and then click Security Basics.

Click any of these topics for more information: