Modifications to the AESDirect Security Policy and Template Manager

Effective August 3, 2009, AESDirect will deploy modifications to security measures and user authentication practices. All of these changes fall under the Department of Commerce's security guidelines and address the U.S. Census Bureau's IT Security Program Requirements. The upgrade to the AESDirect system will provide AESDirect users with the utmost in account security.

The changes are as follows:

• Password expiration will occur every 60 days (formerly 90 days)
• User accounts will be disabled after 90 days of inactivity (formerly 45 days)
• Accounts having no activity by any user affiliated with that account for a 30 day period will be disabled
• Users will be allowed 5 login attempts in 15 minutes prior to being locked out of their account (formerly 3 attempts in 24 hours)
• Sessions will be timed out after 15 minutes of inactivity (formerly 30 minutes)

The template feature in AESDirect has also been upgraded to the new Template Manager. This enhancement enables users to search for, create, update, copy, and delete templates from an application window within the AESDirect system All users will now have access to templates associated with their company's account and will be able to store 100 templates per account.

For further information or questions, contact the U.S. Census Bureau's AES Branch at 1-800-549-0595, menu option 1 or at askaes@census.gov or online at www.census.gov/trade