Password Reset Overview

Resetting passwords is one of the biggest wastes of time for any organization. Surveys suggest that each password reset wastes up to 40 minutes and that password resets make up close to fifty percent of help desk calls.

With Password Reset, part of the iSecurity suite, IBM  i users can now reset their own passwords easily and safely. Organizations addressing the sensitive issue of how to best manage IBM  i user passwords can now enable their users to reset their own passwords with minimal effort or exposure. Users verify themselves after composing personal questions with answers that only they know.

Users, help desk staff, and system administrators can easily use and administer Password Reset. An enterprise can implement it within an organization with minimal overhead, while ensuring that no one other than the user knows the user's password.

Users create their own password profiles and can edit them at any time. They can reset the passwords without additional help or request assistance from the help desk. Users who have forgotten their passwords when trying to log in simply enters "FORGOT" in the User field and "PASSWORD" in the Password field. This triggers the self-authentication process that each user sets up in advance, including case-sensitive personal questions and responses.

Your organization's security policy controls the number and type of challenge questions that the user is asked and how many reset attempts are allowed. Unsuccessful attempts to reset passwords automatically alert relevant security personnel. Challenge questions discourage fraudulent reset requests. Users can set their own default reset password—known only to themselves—which adds another layer of security.

Users can reset their passwords in minutes, without the help desk, saving the company both valuable time and resources.

Integrates with other iSecurity products

You can seamlessly add Password Reset to your iSecurity suite and get all the benefits of a full audit trail, triggered actions, and so on.

Password templates

Users can be assigned to a specific password template that ensures that all users who need the same type of access have the same level of password security.

Password generation

The passwords that are generated comply with your organization’s password policy.

Password Reset classes

Password Reset classes allow you to have different verification policies for different groups of users.

Multi-system

A single reset action allows users to reset their password on all System i systems to which they have access.

Multi-lingual

You can define different languages for different users.

Always available

Password Reset is always available for your users, even during non-standard working hours (late nights, weekends, and so on).

On systems using Password Reset, users set up a group of personal questions that only they can answer.

When they run Password Reset, they are first asked a set of initial identifying questions, set by the system administrators.

If they answer the questions correctly, they are sent a code via email, SMS, or both.

When they receive the code, they enter it into Password Reset.

They are then asked the personal questions that they had established beforehand.

Administrators can set different levels of verification for users, based on a set of user classes defined via the Work with P-R Classes screen (shown in Working with Classes).