Prevent Malware Infections From Adobe Reader PDF Documents

The .PDF has become ubiquitous in today’s office environment. Unfortunately it is also one of the most common virus delivery mechanisms exploited by hackers.

Following the next few steps should reduce the risk of contracting virus and malware infections from .PDF documents:

First make sure you have the most up to date version of Adobe Reader or Adobe Acrobat at the very least version 9.x (for Adobe Reader and version 8.1.7 for Adobe Acrobat) or later with enhanced security.

Then change the following default settings to make Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat) more secure:

1. Open Adobe Reader, Click Edit, Click Preference

2. In the left-hand column (Under Categories) of the Preferences window click on JavaScript, uncheck the box next to “Enable Acrobat JavaScript”

3. In the left-hand column (under Categories), click on Trust Manager, uncheck the box next to “Allow opening of non-PDF file attachments with external applications”

4. In the left-hand column (under Categories) click on Updater, fill the radial next to “Automatically install updates”