Posted Date:May 3, 2016
| Author: | Pamela Eliadis, Service Director, System Operations & Aid Delivery Management, Federal Student Aid |
Subject: TDCM Web Portal Upgrade
The Transaction Delivery Community Manager (TDCM) Web portal (also referred to as the SAIG Mailbox portal) provides users with the ability to view Student Aid Internet Gateway (SAIG) network traffic, restore previously received files, and change passwords. The TDCM portal will be upgraded on May 15, 2016 to resolve several archiving issues and to disable Transport Layer Security (TLS) version 1.0.
See below for a complete description of each of the TDCM portal updates.
Resolution of Archiving Issues
Users have been receiving intermittent errors when attempting to perform an archive restore from the archived messages tab in the TDCM portal. This error will be resolved on May 15, 2016 and users will no longer receive the "Transaction Failed Unexpected error. Please try again." message.
Additionally, we will resolve an issue that causes archived messages in the TDCM portal to be purged from the system prematurely when a message changes from received to available status.
Disablement of Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.0
TLS is an Internet protocol that ensures privacy between applications and users. To meet the federal government's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) security standards and guidelines, TLS 1.0 will be disabled on the TDCM portal on May 15, 2016.
The TDCM portal currently supports TLS 1.0, 1.1, and 1.2. The TLS version that is established during a user’s session depends on the Web browser and version that is being used. Generally, the highest level of TLS that is supported by the user’s browser is the TLS version that is used.
Once TLS 1.0 has been disabled on the TDCM portal, a user with a browser that does not support TLS 1.1 or 1.2 will be unable to connect. These users will need to upgrade to a newer browser that supports TLS 1.1 or 1.2. The browsers below support TLS 1.1 and above:
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Microsoft Internet Explorer 11 and above
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Google Chrome 40 and above
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Firefox 27 and above
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Apple Safari 9
Browsers that have TLS 1.1 and 1.2 disabled by default will need to have TLS 1.1 and 1.2 manually enabled before connecting to the TDCM portal. The following configurations may require manual enablement of TLS 1.1 or 1.2:
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Windows 7 users with IE 8, 9, and 10
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Windows 8 users with IE 10
For assistance with manually enabling TLS on a browser, contact CPS/SAIG Technical Support at the contact information below.
Additional changes to the TDCM portal will be made later this year to disable TLS 1.1 and enforce use of TLS 1.2. Prior to the change we will notify the community by posting an electronic announcement to the Information for Financial Aid Professionals (IFAP) Web site.
For additional information on the federal government’s TLS standards, visit http://csrc.nist.gov/ or http://nist.gov/ and search for NIST SP800-52 Revision 1.
User Documentation
There will be no updates to documentation associated with these updates. All changes outlined above affect the TDCM Web portal only. Transmissions made using the EDconnect or TDClient software will not be impacted by these changes.
Contact Information
If you have questions about this information, contact CPS/SAIG Technical Support at 800/330-5947 (TDD/TTY 800/511-5806) or by e-mail at CPSSAIG@ed.gov.