Adobe LiveCycle Policy Server

Keep information confidential, and users accountable

Confidential information needs to stay confidential at all times. Adobe® LiveCycle™ Policy Server allows you to apply persistent and dynamic security policies to documents that enable you to specify who has access, what they can do, when, and for how long. And best of all, authors can update security policies at any time, even after distribution, so organizations can manage and track access no matter where a document resides.

Using Adobe LiveCycle Policy Server, your organization can:

• Reduce the costs and risks of distributing confidential informationy
  
  
• Control document access and usage rights online or offline, inside or outside the firewall
  
  
• Know when a document has been viewed, printed, or altered
  
  
• Extend version control beyond document and content management systems
  
  
• Provide more assurance that only intended recipients can open, use, or forward a document
  
  
• Leverage Adobe Acrobat® and free Adobe Reader® software to author and view protected documents
  
  
• Revoke access to previously distributed documents
  
  
• Aggregate group information and check user credentials against existing authentication directories

Adobe LiveCycle Policy Server offers a multiplatform solution for dynamic, persistent, and robust document policy management — greatly reducing costs and risk.

Datasheet (406 k)

Product overview

Dynamically control and monitor document usage — anytime and anywhere

Businesses and government agencies must protect mission-critical information, even when it travels outside the organization, while still providing efficient and cost-effective communication. Unfortunately, many organizations still rely on expensive and time-consuming paper-based document management, physical modes of delivery, and mainstream communication security protocols, such as SSL, that protect electronic documents only until they reach their destination.

Adobe® LiveCycle™ Policy Server software is a new enterprise document control solution that enables organizations to closely track and control everything that happens to a particular document. No matter where a document is, authors can specify a recipient's level of access; restrict or allow printing, copying, forwarding, or saving; and monitor usage history with a complete audit trail. And, because Adobe LiveCycle Policy Server enables dynamic document control, you can easily revoke or modify document permissions without having to reissue documents.

How it works

A policy is a dynamic and persistent security property that establishes access rights, permissions, and expiration dates for a given document or set of documents. It is dynamic because an author may alter it after a document has already been distributed, and persistent because the security parameters travel with the document at all times — online or offline, inside or outside the firewall.

When authors wish to apply security policies to a document, they first convert it to an Adobe PDF file using Adobe Acrobat® software. Then, still using Acrobat, they can choose an existing policy stored in Adobe LiveCycle Policy Server or create a new one. Adobe LiveCycle Policy Server applies the policy to the document and from that point on — no matter how the document is delivered — the security policy travels with it.

Before a recipient can access the document, Adobe LiveCycle Policy Server first authenticates the recipient's identity against credentials stored in the organization's LDAP directory. Then, using Acrobat or the freely available Adobe Reader® software, he may use the document only according to the controls established in the policy.

Adobe LiveCycle Policy Server is an integral part of the Adobe Intelligent Document Platform, which enables you to create better and more efficient ways to deliver documents and retrieve information from people and systems.

Dynamic security policy management

• Updates security policies after document publication and distribution
  
  
• Reduces the need to reissue documents
  
  
• Automatically updates documents whenever they communicate with the server
  
  
• Includes the capability to revoke document access

Document encryption and control

• Eliminates the need to manage public and private keys, thereby reducing the complexity of encrypting documents
  
  
• Specifies the recipient's level of access to control printing, copying, saving, and forwarding documents
  
  
• Applies flexible expiration dates and other restrictions to documents

Offline access

• Grants recipients the right to access documents offline for any specified length of time
  
  
• Forces recipients to request additional offline access from the document author after the offline lease has expired

Document auditing

• Tracks the recipient's use of a protected document
  
  
• Monitors what happened to a document, when it happened, and how often

Application integration

• Assigns policies to documents while creating Adobe PDF files from applications such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Outlook, and AutoCAD®
  
  
• Works with other Adobe LiveCycle products to enable more secure, automated document workflows across the enterprise
  
  
• Works with current user administration and content management technologies

In government applications

• Protects internal communications around military intelligence
  
  
• Meets e-government security requirements
  
  
• Increases constituent satisfaction by improving information privacy and confidentiality

In financial services applications

• Revokes access to older versions of forms so that the most current version is always used
  
  
• Can be used to audit form completion so an institution can follow up with a customer, if necessary

In health care applications

• Improves compliance with HIPAA mandates that require strict data confidentiality for health insurance plans, health care providers, and businesses that work with these providers
  
  
• Enables patients to access their medical records electronically while safeguarding their personal health care information

System requirements

Application server/OS combinations supported

Microsoft® Windows Server™ 2003 Enterprise Edition
Windows® 2000 Server with Service Pack 2
Linux® Red Hat® Advanced Server 2.1
Intel® Pentium® 4 processor at 1GHz
1GB of RAM
2 CPUs

Sun™ Solaris™ 9
Sun UltraSPARC® III at 1.2GHz
2GB of RAM
2 CPUs

Web application server/operating system
WebSphere 5.1 on Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition
WebSphere 5.1 on Red Hat Advanced Server 2.1
WebSphere 5.1 on Solaris 9
JBoss 3.2.5 on Windows Server 2003
JBoss 3.2.5 on Windows 2000 Server with Service Pack 2
JBoss 3.2.5 on Red Hat Advanced Server 2.1

Database/operating system
Oracle 9i on Sun Solaris 9
Oracle 9i on Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition
MySQL 4.x on Windows Server 2003
MySQL 4.x on Windows 2000 Server with Service Pack 2
MySQL 4.x on Red Hat Advanced Server 2.1

Related products

Adobe LiveCycle Document Security
Adobe LiveCycle Reader Extensions
Central Pro Output Server
Adobe Document Server
Adobe LiveCycle Forms