Security News

News

February 13, 2013

As discussed in the February 13, 2013 ASO User Group meeting, the forms listed below are provided for customer review. Please provide your comments to NFC.ASO@NFC.USDA.GOV by COB Friday, February 22, 2013. After comments are incorporated, final versions will be posted to the Security Corner of the NFC Home Page.

(DRAFT) NFC Reporting Center Access Form [Word, 19 KB ]

(DRAFT) NFC Payroll Personnel Access Form [Word, 18 KB]

November 26, 2012

To All Agency Security Officers:

During the past week, users reported several problems that initially seemed to be unrelated, but later were found to be related to the Command Propagation Facility (CPF) not being refreshed within our mainframe security software. Normally, commands issued on one of our three mainframe partitions are automatically propagated between the three systems to ensure that they stay in sync; however, the Command Propagation Facility (CPF) stopped working on the ‘C’ mainframe partition at around November 20. As a result, users were not able to log in to various applications (FFIS, FSDW, CTMS and others) after password resets were not propagated to TSOC.

The problem was corrected today. If you previously reported an access problem that has not been resolved, first check to see if the user who is having a problem logging in has a PSUSPEND on their userID. If there is a PSUSPEND, please perform your normal process for resetting the password. After you reset the userID, users can log in and change their password.
If this does not resolve the problem, please contact the Operations & Security Center (OSC) at osc.etix@nfc.usda.gov or 1-800-767-9641.

November 20, 2012

Please note that effective immediately, all requests to expedite should be submitted using the following method:

Send an email to NFC.ASO@nfc.usda.gov
Include ‘EXPEDITE’ in the subject line
Include the request number(s) in the body of the email
Include a justification for the expedite

Requests for expedite should no longer be sent directly to Lisa Stafford or Louis Collins. Requesting expedites in this new way will ensure that your concerns are more quickly addressed by a team of Senior Administrators.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation, and for your patience.

A new release of Top Secret (r15) will be implemented on Saturday, December 1, 2012, with added password control measures.

CA Top Secret is a mainframe security software product, utilized by NFC to secure the mainframe. Top Secret r15, 3rd edition, has feature updates that include system modifications and control enhancements designed to increase serviceability and maintainability. In this release, password complexity has been enforced, which means your password must contain at least one lower case letter and at least one UPPER case letter. The results are MiXed cAse (MC), lower case (LC) and UPPER CASE (UC) password authenticator characteristics, which are processed in format during system entry validation.

These settings will ensure we remain in compliance with NFC Policies and satisfy National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Controls. This significant change will impact NEW and/or EXPIRED accounts when a password requires a change on or after December 1, 2012.

For questions concerning this change, please contact NFC’s Operations and Security Center (OSC) by web at https://servicecenter.nfc.usda.gov/osc/submit-req.htm, by email at OSC.ETix@nfc.usda.gov, or by calling 1-800-767-9641.