Publication Date: April 2005
Author: General Manager, FSA Application, School Eligibility and Delivery Services
Summary:Upcoming EDconnect and SAIG security enhancements
Posted on 04-11-2005
The Department of Education is pleased to announce upcoming enhancements to Student Aid Internet Gateway (SAIG) security and a new release of the EDconnect software. As most of you are aware, EDconnect is the Windows-based software that the financial aid community uses to transmit Title IV data to and receive data from the Department of Education. EDconnect, Version 7.0, will be available on the FSAdownload Web site (http://fsadownload.ed.gov) in May 2005.The goal of this communication is to ensure you that EDconnect functionality has not changed significantly. Enhancements were made to the software to add 508 accessibility and to tighten password security to SAIG. The following rules will go into affect when creating a new network password using all SAIG products: including, TDCM web tool, EDconnect, and TDClient or EAClient.
--- Password must begin with an alpha character.
--- Password must be a minimum length of eight characters.
--- Password must contain at least one upper case and one lower case alpha character, plus one numeric character.
--- Password cannot be the word "PASSWORD" (ignore case).
--- Password cannot be changed back to "PASSWORD". (Only CPS/SAIG Technical Support can reset a password to "PASSWORD".)
--- Password cannot be any of the last four passwords used.
--- Password cannot be a password which matches the User Name or TD number.
--- Password will be locked out after three failures. (You must call CPS/SAIG Technical Support to have the password reset.)
NOTE: If you currently use TDClient or EAClient to transmit data via a mainframe or midrange platform, then check the tdclient.ini or easyacc.ini file for the following parameter: "case=U" (this parameter should have a blank ' ' or 'L' instead of 'U' to allow for both upper and lower case characters in the password.)
Additional information will be distributed in May.
If you need further information, you can reach CPS/SAIG Technical Support Monday through Friday, 7:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m. (CT), at 800/330-5947 or e-mail CPSSAIG@ed.gov.