Choosing your login details
How VIN login security works
Changing your login details
Why secondary security is important
Cookies and VIN
Choosing your login details
When you fill out the VIN membership application, you are asked to choose your own log in details:
- Username - must be 6 to 20 characters and may contain a mixture of letters, numbers, and punctuation characters.
- Password - must be 10 to 20 characters and may contain a mixture of letters, numbers, and punctuation characters.
- Mother's Birth Surname - must be 4 to 20 letters.
- If the name you wish to use is less than 4 characters please use both first and last name. Contact VIN Membership services if you need help.
- Secure ID Number - must be 4 to 20 characters and can be a mixture of letters and numbers.
In all instances, your security credential choices may not contain spaces.
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How VIN login security works
When you click on the LOGIN button from www.vin.com or BETA.vin.com, the login system asks for your VIN username and password.
The website then verifies that the username and password you entered are valid and, if so, asks for the answer to a corresponding secondary security question - either the mother's birth surname or the secure ID number you provided.
If you prefer not to enter your username and password each time you log in, you can save them by using the built-in features of your web browser - click here to find out how.
(NOTE: Make sure that the computer to which you save your login information is your private computer and not a public one where anyone can access your VIN account with your saved login. If there are multiple doctors working in the same practice who would like to use VIN, you must all use your own private login details to do so. Learn why.)
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Changing your login details
Change your password
Choose one of three methods:
- www.vin.com/passwordreset (you will need to know your username).
- Click the Forgot Your Password? button at www.vin.com (you will need to know your username).
- Log in to VIN and use the MyVIN feature (MyVIN > Membership > Change Your Password).
Change your secondary security (secure ID number/mother's birth surname)
- Log in to VIN and use the MyVIN feature (MyVIN > Membership > Change Secondary Security)
Alternatively, you may call VIN Membership Services to make changes to any of your login details or email them at VINgram@vin.com and let them know a good time and telephone number at which to reach you.
To protect your information, please do NOT send your new log in details via email.
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Why secondary security is important
Privacy is of utmost concern to VIN. We take great pride in keeping VIN exclusive to members only. As an important step to ensure your privacy, we ask an additional security question each time you enter the VIN site. By using information that is well known to you, but not commonly shared publicly, we hope that this added step will be uncomplicated, yet provide the security that the VIN community desires.
The mother's birth surname and secure ID number answers are used as additional security for you and the other VIN members during the login process.
When you use your secure ID number during the login process, the data is submitted as a string of unidentified numbers and is not linked with your name. Only a portion of the secure ID number is actually stored in your membership record, so even VIN membership services staff are not able to see the entire number. Please be assured that VIN uses the latest technology to secure the information you provide each time you log in to VIN.
Once your username and password have been verified, you may be asked an additional security question, depending on how long it has been since you last logged in. The two secondary security questions, mother's birth surname and your secure id (both of which you provided during the registration process) rotate at random.
If your VIN session has been inactive for two hours or more, you will be asked the secondary security question.
For example:
1. You log out of VIN at the clinic in the morning and log back in when you get home at the end of the day. You WILL be asked the secondary security question.
2. You log out of VIN to take a phone call and return 30 minutes later to continue your VIN session. Even though you logged out, you will NOT be asked the secondary security question, because your session has not been inactive for more than two hours.
3. You get called away from your VIN session to handle an emergency and forget to log out. Three hours later, you return to your VIN session. You WILL be asked the secondary security question, even though you didn't log out because your session has been inactive for more than two hours.
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Cookies and VIN:
VIN uses temporary cookies (sometimes known as Session cookies) to support its security system - without cookies enabled on your browser, you will not be able to use VIN. VIN does not store these cookies on your computer and they are destroyed when you close your browser. However, if your browser supports a feature that reloads your previous web pages when it's restarted, such as Firefox, then your browser may temporarily save VIN cookies to your computer.
If you use a Mac, temporary cookies are not destroyed when you click the red circle on your browser, but only when you completely quit the browser through the Mac's top menu.
If you browse to other web pages after logging into VIN, then return, your web browser will still have the temporary cookies from your initial login and will not prompt you for your username and password. If your VIN session remains inactive for more than 2 hours you will be prompted for an additional security question as described above.
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Click here to read Frequently Asked Questions about the VIN Login.