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WiemDridi

Power BI ignores Excel protection and exposes protected data

Submitted by on ‎03-31-2026 02:15 AM

Hello,

 

I hope you're doing well.

I wanted to share an observation regarding how Power BI Desktop handles data imports from Excel files that have sheet or workbook protection enabled with a password.

It appears that Power BI can successfully import data from these protected files without showing any warnings or notifications to the user.

This behavior may give business users a false sense of security, as many believe their data is safeguarded by Excel's protection features.

 

While it's clear that Excel protection is not a form of encryption, the lack of any warning or indication in Power BI creates a governance and compliance risk—particularly for non-technical users who may not be aware that their data is still accessible. Ideally, Power BI should either block such imports, explicitly warn users that Excel protection is ignored, or adhere to the protection settings in place.

 

The impact of this issue is the potential unintentional exposure of sensitive or confidential information, which could have serious consequences for organizations relying on these protections.

 

Could you please look into this and let me know your thoughts?

 

Best Regards

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