Product: VDRPro
Applies to: All managers and publishers
Information Rights Management (IRM) is a security feature that allows exchange managers to control users' access to documents even after they are downloaded. When IRM is applied, documents are encrypted before downloading, and users must enter their email address and password to view the documents. Protected documents cannot be opened by anyone who has not been given permission to view them.
Note: In Intralinks VDRPro and in this Help Center, "IRM protection" and "protection" are used interchangeably and mean the same thing.
PDF documents and Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint, and Excel) documents can be protected using IRM.
When documents are protected, exchange managers can revoke access to downloaded copies at any time. The copies will continue to exist on the users' desktops, but they will not be able to open them.
If Secure Viewer is being used on your exchange, you can prevent users from downloading the documents and force the users to view IRM-protected documents in Secure Viewer.
If the Allow IRM (Information Rights Management) Protection setting is not enabled for your exchange and you want to begin using it, contact your Intralinks Customer Success Manager or Intralinks Support.
Limitations
File types other than PDF, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel cannot be protected.
IRM protection cannot be used for files that are larger than the following limits
| 500MB | |
| Word | 150MB |
| PowerPoint | 150MB |
| Excel (.xlsx) | 150MB |
| Excel (.xls) | 40MB |
PDF documents that require a password to open them cannot be IRM protected. PDFs that require a password to make changes to the document can be protected; the password will be removed when the document is downloaded and IRM is applied. (The original document in the exchange will not be changed and will continue to require a password in order to make changes.)
If you protect digitally signed PDF documents, the signatures will be replaced with images, and other information such as the reason for the signature will be removed. This is similar to printing a digitally signed document.