U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

IHS Remote Access - VPN

Welcome to the Indian Health Service VPN information page. The purpose of this page is to provide you with basic information about the use of the IHS Enterprise VPN system.

A Virtual Private Network, or VPN, lets employees access the IHS computer network from anywhere in the United States.

This website is intended for IHS and approved associated employees who currently have a VPN account and use VPN to connect to the IHS computer network. (For information about obtaining a VPN account, see your supervisor).

The objectives of the IHS VPN system are to:

Comply with federal laws and guidelines
Provide secure (encrypted) communications between the computer you are using and the IHS network
Use multi-factor authentication (two or more methods of verifying who you are)
Enable logging and monitoring of all VPN activity
Provide Emergency Management Program/Continuation of Operations Program (EMP/COOP) emergency access to normal business applications

You are also required to enter an IHS username and password and to provide a second method of verifying your identity. This is called "multi-factor authentication." You can verify your identity in one of three ways:

An Entrust Token
A phone (landline or mobile) registered with PhoneFactor
An IHS Personal Identity Verification Card (PIV) and PIN

For a list of Frequently Asked Questions regarding the VPN system, please see the FAQs for VPN [PDF - 237KB]. If you have been set up to log in via VPN but are having issues logging in, please contact the IHS National Helpdesk at itsupport@ihs.gov or at 1-888-830-7280.

IHS VPN

For Information regarding two-factor authentication and the options you can use for the new enterprise VPN, please see the VPN User Guide [PDF - 1.65 MB].