Why Office's Built-in Encryption Isn't Enough

Microsoft Office offers two types of password protection: one that restricts editing, and one that encrypts the file. The editing restriction is trivially bypassed , freely available tools can remove it in seconds. Even Office's "encrypt with password" option has had vulnerabilities in older formats (.doc, .xls) that used weak RC4 encryption.

FilesLock takes a different approach: instead of relying on the file format's built-in security, it wraps the entire document in AES-256-GCM encryption. The resulting .locked file cannot be opened by Word, Excel, or any other application. It is raw encrypted bytes that only FilesLock can decrypt with the correct password.

• Excel spreadsheets , financial models, salary data, customer lists, pricing sheets
• Word documents , contracts, proposals, HR records, legal agreements
• PowerPoint presentations , board decks, M&A materials, unreleased strategy
• CSV exports , database dumps, analytics reports, user data
• LibreOffice files , ODT, ODS, ODP formats work too

For businesses handling GDPR-regulated data, encrypting documents before sharing via email or cloud storage is not just best practice , it is a compliance requirement. FilesLock makes this effortless: drop the file, enter a password, share the encrypted version.