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