We hope you will never forget your password. But if you do, we hope you have kept an unprotected export file secure somewhere, which allows you to recover the key and create a new password. However, if you have not kept an unprotected export file and you do forget your password, your only recourse is to reset the key and the password. In this case, you will be able to establish a new key and a new password for sending and opening future EaSecure messages, but will forever lose the capability of reading old EaSecure messages. The only way to recover the old messages is to ask the original senders to send them again.

The likelihood of forgetting the password and the security requirements for resetting the password vary from user to user and change over time. For example, when you first started using EaSecure, you are more likely to forget your password, and you will not have a lot of important messages yet. You do not want to go into too much trouble to reset your password, if you forget it. When you become a serious user, you are less likely to forget your password, and you will have many important messages. It should be more difficult to reset your password in this case, to maintain higher security. EaSecure provides a "Smart Password Reset Option" to solve this problem. It will calculate how likely you are to forget your password based on how many times you have entered your password correctly over a period of time and will automatically enable or disable the password reset feature. Of course, you can override the automatic settings and enable or disable the password reset feature manually. You can only change your password reset option when you still remember your password.

Check or Change Password Reset Option

To check or change the current password reset option:

(1) Select "EaSecure Key Manger" under the "Tools" menu to start the EaSecure Key Manager.

(2) Select the email address you want to check or change the password reset option, and then click the button.

(3) Enter your password and click the button. A dialog box will pop up to show you whether the password reset feature is enabled or disabled and allow you to change the option. There are three options available:

(a) Always enable password reset feature.
(b) Always disable password reset feature.
(c) Automatically enable or disable password reset feature according to how likely you may forget the password.

(4) If you want to change the option, select a different option and click the button.

Please note: Even if the password reset feature is disabled, your password can still be reset by contacting EaSecure customer service.

Procedure to Reset Password

In case you forget your password and your password reset feature is enabled, you can reset your password by doing the following:

Step 1 - Request a reset code. To request a reset code:

(1) Select "EaSecure Key Manager" under the "Tools" menu to start the EaSecure Key Manager.

(2) Select the email address you want to reset the password and click the button.

(3) Click to answer the question of whether you have kept an unprotected export file. (If you have kept an unprotected export file, you don't need to reset the password. You can just create a new password for your old exported keys.)

(4) Click the button. A reset code will be sent to your email address. The reset code will expire in 1 hour. You need to execute the following Step 2 within that time period.

Step 2 - Reset your password (and key) using the reset code. To reset your password using the reset code:

(1) Select "EaSecure Key Manager" under the "Tools" menu to start the EaSecure Key Manager.

(2) Select the email address you want to reset the password for and click the button.

(3) Click to answer the question.

(4) Click the button.

(5) Enter the reset code, and click the button.

Step 3 - After your password (and key) is reset, you will receive a "Welcome" EaSecure message protected by a one-time password and the one-time password in a separate email. Simply open the "Welcome" EaSecure message using the one-time password, create your new password (just like the first time you opened an EaSecure message), and your new key and new password will be established.

Step 4 - Send an EaSecure message to all your correspondents who have communicated with you recently (with in 7 days) and urge them to open the message. This will allow your new public key to reach their computers when they open your message. (Otherwise, your old key may be stored on their computers for up to 7 days, and during that time, they may use your old key to encrypt EaSecure messages for you and you cannot open these messages.)

Please note: If you use EaSecure on more than one computer, you need to export your new key to these computers in order to send and open future EaSecure messages there. It is also important that you create an export file containing your new key and store the export file in a safe place as a backup copy of your new keys. If you are not sure you will always remember you new password, you should make the export file UNPROTECTED.