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.
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.
Groups and Roles
The "Groups and Roles" dialog box can be found by clicking the Security button on the right side of the status bar, just left of the Location button.

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 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.
  - Access levels for a database
    To change an access level for a user, you must have Manager access to the database.
  - Additional privileges in the access control list
    A person with Manager access to a database can select an access level for each person, group, and server and can then enhance or restrict this level as needed by selecting or deselecting the additional privileges within the access level.
  - To add a user to the access control list and set the access level
    To add a user from the access control list, you must have Manager access to the database.
  - To rename a user in the access control list
    You can rename a user in your access control list when you want to substitute one user name for another.
  - To remove a user from the access control list
    To remove a user from the access control list, you must have Manager access to the database.
  - Adding or renaming ACL or ECL entries
  - Creating and managing roles
    Roles provide a way to define a group within a database. You can assign users and groups to roles to reflect access to particular views, forms, documents, or sections.
  - To view the history of changes made to an access control list
    If you have Manager access to a database, you can view a chronological list of changes made to the access control list (ACL) on any replica.
  - Advanced settings in the access control list
    You can define an Administration Process server for a database, choose to enforce a consistent access control list (ACL) across all replicas of the database, look up user types for unspecified users in the ACL, and set a maximum name and password for Internet users.
  - To define an administration server for a database
    If you define an administration server for your database, the server, through its Administration Process, updates names in the ACL (and Readers and Authors fields) as those names are updated in the HCL Domino® Directory of the server.
  - Enforcing a consistent access control list
    You can ensure that an ACL remains identical on all database replicas on servers, as well as on all local replicas that users make on workstations or laptops.
  - Maximum Internet name and password in the ACL
    Users who access an HCL Notes® database using a Web browser are not identified by a HCL Domino® server in the same way Notes client users are identified. Use the "Maximum Internet name & password" setting to control the maximum type of access that Internet or intranet browser users have to a database.
  - To display a name's effective access in the access control list
    The "effective access" a person, server, or a group has to documents in a database is not always apparent. For example, if there are two groups with different levels of access to documents, and someone is a member of both groups, you may wonder what access the person actually has.
  - To look up the user type for an unspecified user
    If you have a name in your ACL that is not assigned to a specific user type, it is listed as Unspecified. If you are not sure whether the name is a user, a server, or a group, you can have HCL Notes® look up the name for you.
  - Groups and Roles
    The "Groups and Roles" dialog box can be found by clicking the Security button on the right side of the status bar, just left of the Location button.
- 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.

Groups and Roles

The "Groups and Roles" dialog box can be found by clicking the Security button on the right side of the status bar, just left of the Location button.

Groups and Roles

When you are in a database that is on a server, you can open the "Groups and Roles" dialog box to see a list of all identities that the server knows you as, including your User name and any groups and roles that you are part of. Any entry that has a check mark next to it is indicating the identity that is determining your access level for the current database you are in.

For example, if you have Manager access to your mail database, and you open the "Groups and Roles" dialog box from your mail database on your home server, you may see the following:

The dialog box stating you have Manager access to the database.
A check mark next to your User name indicating that Manager access was determined by that particular identity.