First Published 23 Nov 2025

I was asked to give a live presentation on improving the security of Access databases to UK Access User Group members at their all-day conference in London on Wed 22 Oct 2025.
Somwhat pompously, I decided to call the session A Masterclass in Access Security. For more details, see 30th Anniversary Conference (Part 2) – Autumn 2025.

File-based apps such as Access databases can NEVER be made 100% secure. A capable and determined hacker can break any Access database given sufficient time and motivation.
However, by erecting various barriers, it is certainly possible to make the process so difficult and time consuming that it isn't normally worth attempting.

My presentation was used to some of the main steps that developers should take to improve security. The most important of these depend on who or what they are trying to protect their apps against. Some of these steps were familiar to all experienced developers, but the session also included several less well-known aspects that were new to everyone attending.

The session included a demonstration on how to improve Access security together with a 'fun' security challenge designed to test developers' knowledge and skills.

The presentation was very well received by those attending with an overall feedback score of 95.63% for both content and delivery.

The following week, on Tues 28 Oct, I gave a very similar presentation online to the Access Lunchtime User Group led by fellow Access MVP, Maria Barnes.



Video

The Access Lunchtime meeting was recorded and the video is now available on the AccessUserGroups.org YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/hzyR_1F9AXA or you can click below:

       



Downloads

a)   PDF of the presentation:
     A Masterclass in Access Security     Approx 2 MB

b)   Improve Security DEMO database with code:
      Secure Your Database     Approx 0.8 MB (zipped)

c)   32-bit Security Challenge example:
      EncryptNoStrings32_365     32-bit ACCDE frontend & ACCDB backend   (Access 365 format)     Approx 2.2 MB (zipped)

d)   64-bit Security Challenge example:
      EncryptNoStrings64_365     64-bit ACCDE frontend & ACCDB backend   (Access 365 format)     Approx 2.2 MB (zipped)



Links to related articles

The final slide in the presentation gave a large number of links to security articles elsewhere on this website. For convenience, I am providing the list below together with a few additional links:

      Compare Access File Security : MDB/MDE vs ACCDB/ACCDE     (3 pages)
      Improve Security in Access Databases     (2 pages)
      Adding Security to Access Databases - A Wish List
      Purpose of System Tables     (3 pages)
      Security Challenges     (5 pages)
      Is Location Trusted . . . and does it matter?
      Using the new VBA Project Signing feature     (2 pages)
      Command Line Project Signing
      Code Signing VBA Projects with Timestamp
      Maximum Password Length in Access Files
      Linked Table Passwords Exposed
      Manage the Shift Bypass Property     (3 pages)
      Disable Design View in ACCDB Files
      Hide Sensitive Data in Forms and Reports
      Protect Data in Tables and Queries
      Lock Down Database Objects
      VBE Option Statements
      Check if an Application is Running



Database Security Services

Mendip Data Systems also provides a service advising client companies and developers on security issues in their databases / systems.
At the end of the process, you can either fix any issues yourself or we can arrange further work to do this on your behalf.

For further details of this chargeable service, please see my Database Security article



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Colin Riddington           Mendip Data Systems                 Last Updated 23 Nov 2025

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