AESDirect Authentication Upgrade

AESDirect will implement a new logon procedure this Sunday April 28, 2002. Please do not panic about this date. It is NOT a cutoff date, and NO company will be frozen out of its AESDirect account on that date. Instead, this marks the beginning of the new logon procedure requiring each company to change its AESDirect password every 180 days. The AESDirect account administrator for your company will be responsible for changing the password.

Sunday April 28, 2002 will be the first opportunity for your company's AESDirect administrator to change your company's AESDirect password. Your company's username and password will remain active for several months after

Sunday April 28, 2002. During that time, your company's AESDirect administrator will have an opportunity to change your password before it expires.

The Census Bureau has already mailed letters to most filers about the new logon procedure and is in the process of mailing letters to the remaining filers. The letters are addressed to each company's contact person and mailing address as it is listed in the AESDirect customer database at the time.

In the letter, Census asks filers to complete and fax a form identifying an administrator for their company's AESDirect account and assigns them a temporary Admin Code to be used when changing the password.

How to comply with the new AESDirect logon procedure:

If you have not yet received a response to your e-mail inquiring about the status of your company's Admin Code, please be patient. You will NOT be frozen out of the system on Sunday April 28, 2002. We will get back to you over the next few weeks. We have been deluged with hundreds of inquiries based on the pop-up message on www.aesdirect.gov It takes time to research each company's status, especially with limited information provided in many of the e-mails recently received.

If your company has already responded to a Census letter by faxing in a form identifying the company's AESDirect administrator, you need do nothing further until on or after Sunday April 28, 2002 at which time, a dialog box will appear allowing your administrator to use your temporary Admin Code to create a permanent Admin Code and to change your password. Every six months thereafter, the administrator will be required to change your password again.

If you are not sure whether your company has received a Census letter, check with your company's AESDirect contact person to see if she has received the letter.

If you know for a fact that your company contact person has NOT received a letter, then ask the contact person to e-mail askaes@census.gov to request your code, please include your company name, ID number (EIN, SSN, or DUNS) and your fax number. Please submit only one request per company.

If you know for a fact that your company contact person has received a letter, but has not faxed the form back to Census, then encourage the person to do so as soon as possible. The process is not complete until we receive your administrator form.

If you recently registered for AESDirect, don't panic! You should receive a letter in the next few weeks.

If you do not use AESDirect or any of its enhancements (AESPcLink, EDI upload or AESWebLink) to report your export shipment data, then you may disregard this message because it does not apply to you.

If you find yourself unable to log onto www.aesdirect.gov, don't panic! Please call 1-877-715-4433 to determine what if any technical problem may be occurring. From there, you'll be referred to the proper office to restore your connection.

If you don't fit into any of the preceding categories, please write to askaes@census.gov and remember to provide the following information: Company Name, ID Number (EIN, SSN, DUNS), fax number. Please be patient in waiting for a response. In the meantime, you will NOT be frozen out of the system.