Patent ID: 8132265

Claim:
A machine-implemented method for password recovery or password reset using multilingual challenge and response security and executed on a computing device that causes the computing device to perform the method, comprising: selecting, by the computing device, two or more challenge questions for a user, and the user providing answers during an automated procedure for recovering an existing password for the user or for resetting the existing password to a new password for the user; identifying, by the computing device, a first spoken language for presentation of the two or more challenge questions to the user during the automated procedure; randomly changing, by the computing device, the first spoken language to different spoken languages from question to question or permitting the user or an administrator to select the different spoken languages; identifying, by the computing device, a second spoken language for the answers, the second spoken language chosen from the different spoken languages during the automated procedure, wherein the first spoken language is different from the second spoken language; starting, by the computing device, the automated procedure so that during the automated procedure a requestor supplies a valid user identification of the user and a first question of the two or more challenge questions is presented in the first spoken language to the requestor and a first answer is expected from the requestor in the second spoken language; presenting, by the computing device, a second question of the two or more challenge questions, when the first answer is correctly provided by the user in the second spoken language, the second question of the two or more challenge questions again presented in the first spoken language to the requestor and a second answer is again expected from the requestor in the second spoken language; and supplying, by the computing device, the existing password for password recovery to the requestor or the new password for password reset when the second answer is correctly provided by the user in the second spoken language, and wherein the second question of the two or more challenge questions is never presented to or discoverable by the requestor when the first answer to the first question of the two or more challenge questions is not correctly provided by the user in the second language.