Home
Securing your data
IBM® 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.
Using Notes shared login to eliminate Notes password prompts
Notes® shared login (hereafter shared login) allows you to start IBM® 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.
What to do if you use shared login and think someone has stolen your ID
If you use shared login and think that someone has stolen your ID, you should take corrective action.

Securing your data
IBM® 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 IBM® Notes® for the first time, you should change your password to something that you can remember but is hard for others to guess.
- Using Notes shared login to eliminate Notes password prompts
  Notes® shared login (hereafter shared login) allows you to start IBM® 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.
  - Enabling shared login
    Your administrator might enable shared login for you, or might allow you to enable shared login yourself.
  - Disabling shared login
    If you have been using shared login, your administrator might decide to disable it for you. Or your administrator might allow you to disable shared login yourself.
  - Copying your ID file when you use shared login
    If you use shared login and want to make a copy of your User ID, you must use a special procedure to do so. The procedure assigns the copy of the ID file a new Notes® password.
  - What to do if you use shared login and think someone has stolen your ID
    If you use shared login and think that someone has stolen your ID, you should take corrective action.
- Locking the Notes ID
  Locking your IBM® 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 IBM® 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 IBM® 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, IBM® 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
  IBM® 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 IBM 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 IBM® Notes® scripts and formulas. For example, you may give all types of execution access to your IBM Domino® administrator, but allow no execution access to unsigned scripts or formulas.
- Securing your POP3, IMAP, or LDAP accounts
  IBM® 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.

What to do if you use shared login and think someone has stolen your ID

If you use shared login and think that someone has stolen your ID, you should take corrective action.

About this task

Perform the following steps:

Procedure

Click File > Security > User Security.

Note: If you see the words This ID file has been backed up into vault <vaultname>, contact your administrator and do not continue.
Click Compromised ID.

Note: If you see the Compromised Password button rather than the Compromised ID button, instead follow the steps in the topic What to do if your password is compromised.
Click New Public Keys to create new public keys for the ID following the steps described in the topic Creating new public keys.
Public key checking prevents someone from using an old copy of your ID to access servers. Click Public Key Checking and perform one of the following actions
- If you see the text Your home server allows public key checking for you, click Close and continue to the next step.
- If you see the text Your home server does NOT allow public key checking for you or the text Information not available: status of public key checking on home server, click Send Mail to send an email to your server administrator requesting that public key checking be enabled on your home server. Your server administrator email address is completed for you if Notes® is able to determine it.
If you use a copy of your ID on another computer, click Copy ID and follow the steps described in the topic Copying your ID file when you use shared login.
Click Close.