Help, I Forgot My Password!

Introducing iForgotMyPW.nih.gov

It‘s 4:12 a.m. and you can’t sleep. You have this noble idea and need to send an email to a few colleagues before the morning. Sadly you’ve forgotten that ONE important thing …your (ten-character, completely un-guessable) NIH PASSWORD.

Having followed the NIH password guidelines to create a password that is complex and hard to guess, you suddenly discover that the procedure that makes your password safer also makes it almost impossible to remember, which is why you find yourself at 4:12 a.m. having forgotten your password. What to do?

So I keep forgetting my password - what can I do?

Well - if you take a few minutes and register now at iForgotMyPW.nih.gov your solution will be only a few clicks away, even at 4:12 a.m.

How do I register?

Simply go to http://iForgotMyPW.nih.gov and validate your NIH account. In order to register you will be asked to provide five unique answers to five questions. When you need to reset your password, you must correctly provide three of those registered answers.

If you have not registered and you do not know your password, you must contact the NIH Help Desk for assistance:

(301) 496-4357
(866) 319-4357 Toll free
(301) 496-8294 TTY

Are there other benefits for registering?

When you are not able to access the iForgotMyPW site to reset your password, but you are registered there, the NIH Help Desk can assist! For security reasons they are required to perform basic “identity proofing.” They are authorized to ask you your key questions. Upon receiving three correct responses they can quickly change your password for you.

If you then need to reset your other, non-active directory, passwords, you can use your NIH Password to log in at Password Reset (http://silk.nih.gov/passwordset) where NIH users can reset their Helix, ALW, and Titan passwords.

How do I reset or unlock my account once I have registered?

Go to http://iForgotMyPW.nih.gov, validate your account and then select the function you need from the menu. It’s just that simple!