Q: I forgot my PGP Disk Encryption password. What do I do?

PGP is no longer being offered on the software grid. Support is being phased out and will discontinue at the end of 2016.

Answer

PGP Desktop's Whole Disk Encryption generates a recovery token upon installation which will allow a user to access their system and reset a forgotten passphrase. In the event of a forgotten passphrase, this token is retrieved by a PGP Universal Server Administrator and given to the user.

If you installed PGP Desktop from MIT and have forgotten your passphrase, or have been locked out after too many incorrect passphrase attempts, you should contact the IS&T Help Desk and ask to receive a recovery token. These tokens are generated for a single use and is unique for each user.

If you are not at MIT, you must contact your own help desk - we cannot help with recovery of non-MIT installations.

How to request a token

• Contact the IS&T Help Desk. Our Accounts team will be able to generate a recovery token in your behalf.
• If your computer is a Windows PC, use the "Advanced" command at the bottom corner of the PGP BootGuard screen, to open the Advanced screen.
  • On the Advanced screen, find the "Computer Name" and "Computer ID" of your disk.
  • Sending the "Computer Name" or "Computer ID" (or both) along with your request will make it easier to help you.

What to do with a token

A recovery token acts like another password to unlock your disk. It looks similar to the example listed below:

1Z5U2-V2BFZ-AXLRR-FDGG2-XPHJU-WDE

Note: Do not use this example as your recovery token.

After receiving the token, you will need to reboot the computer. Follow the instructions given to you to enter the recovery token and reset your Whole Disk Encryption passphrase.

Additional Information More information on PGP can be found on the PGP Desktop page. If you don't find your answer, contact pgp-help@mit.edu.

Additional Resources

Symantec has a page with information for Using Whole Disk Recovery Tokens:

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH149068