AUTOMATIC RECOVERY OF FORGOTTEN PASSWORDS

摘要

In accordance with the invention a method of securely and automaticallyauthenticating a user is disclosed. Bona fides are entered for a user, hashed,and stored at an authenticating entity, remote from the user's computer. Whena user forgets his/her password, the user enters his/her bona fides, which areagain hashed on the user's system, and then securely transmitted to theauthenticating entity. The authenticating entity compares the received, hashedbona fides to those previously stored at the authenticating entity. If thecomparison shows that the values match or otherwise appropriately correlate,the user will be authenticated. The user will then be provided with the meansto access his/her encrypted data. In other words, once authenticated theauthenticating entity will automatically provide the user and/or the user'scomputer with an access key, in one embodiment, allowing the user to accesshis/her encrypted data.