Managing Secondary Email and Security Question

Overview

It is important to keep your secondary email address and security question up to date. These may be used in the account recovery process to reset a forgotten password or unlock your account. Having these set up allows you to recover your account in these situations without requiring assistance from the Service Desk.

In this article:

• Add or update a secondary email
• Updating your security question

Add or update a secondary email

A secondary email address can be set up as a method to verify your identity in the account recovery process. Notifications about your account activity that are sent to your primary email will also be sent to your secondary email once configured.

1. Log in to your Okta dashboard at login.pugetsound.edu, click your name in the upper-right corner then click Settings.
   
2. In the Personal Information section, click Edit.
   
   • Note: If you have been signed in for more than 15 minutes and do not see the Edit button, click the green Edit Profile button in the upper right. You will be prompted to re-authenticate.
     
3. Type in your personal email address (not your Puget Sound email address) in the Secondary email field then click Save.
   
4. You will see a prompt to check your email. Go to your inbox to open the message.
   
5. Click the Confirm Email link in the message to verify your email. You must confirm the email before you can use it for account recovery.
   
6. You will see a notification that your secondary email address has been updated!
   

Updating your security question

If you do not remember the answer to your security question, Technology Services strongly recommends removing it and setting it back up. During the process to reset a forgotten password or unlock an account, you must know the answer to your security question in order to proceed. 

1. Log in to your Okta dashboard at login.pugetsound.edu, click your name in the upper-right corner then click Settings.
   
2. Scroll down to the Security Methods section and click Remove next to Security Question.
   
3. You may be prompted to re-authenticate before it is successfully removed. 
4. Click Set up next to Security Question. You may be prompted to re-authenticate again. 
   
5. Click Set up for Security Question.
   
6. Select whether to Choose a security question from the drop-down list or Create my own security question to write your own. Type in your answer in the Answer field then click Verify. Only you should know the answer since it will be used to verify your identity during self-service account recovery if you forget your password or need to unlock your account. 
   
7. You have finished setting up your security question!