[E10-erate] FW: Hints & Warnings on Using New PINs

[Sue Rains]

FYI...
Sue R.
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: wayne.fisher at nde.ne.gov [mailto:wayne.fisher at nde.ne.gov] 
Sent: Friday, December 16, 2005 8:44 AM
To: jhopkins at esu1.org; dmwolfe at mail.esu2.org; phillips at esu3.org;
chummel at esu4.org; cdoyle at esu5.org; sjb at esu6.org; bkabes at esu7.org;
pbeckman at esu8.org; cpetroff at esu9.org; Alan Wibbels; Ron Cone; Sue Rains;
peterson at esu11.org; rhays at esu11.org; bjpeters at panesu.org;
jcopley at panesu.org; sschall at esu15.org; trtaylor at esu15.org;
radkins at esu16.org; mgurney at esu17.org; dodvody at lps.org; witts at ops.org
Subject: Hints & Warnings on Using New PINs



>From "E-rate Central News For the Week - Dec 12": 


Hints and Warnings on Using New PINs 

Any authorized E-rate form signer, who had certified a Form 470, 471, or
486 before November 8, 2005, should now have received a new 6- to
8-digit PIN which will permit them to electronically certify forms
online.  Earlier 4-digit PINs have been deactivated.   

The use of online certifications, not only simplifies the filing process
for applicants, but speeds the SLD's processing of applications by
eliminating the labor intensive step of having to match paper
certifications with electronically submitted forms.  We encourage
applicants to use electronic certifications, and offer the following
suggestions: 

1.        If you are an applicant's E-rate contact, but do not sign its
forms, check to make sure that the signer of the forms did receive a new
PIN. 
2.        If the signer was qualified to receive a new PIN, but did not,
the SLD's instructions are to contact its Client Service Bureau
(888-203-8100).  Prospective signers, who have not actually physically
signed a qualifying E-rate form in the past, will have to do so before
being eligible to receive a PIN.  Note that the PIN section of the SLD
Web site (https://slpin.universalservice.org/Pin/PinArea.aspx) is
currently enabled only to change or disable PINs, not to request new
PINs. 
3.        Some applicants have reported receiving more than one new PIN.
If this has occurred, we suggest that you cancel the extra PIN(s) using
the online PIN disabling function (see above).  Before doing so,
however, take a close look at the spelling of the name and the address
information associated with the PINs.  It's possible that the
information is not precisely the same (in which case SLD system assigned
two PINs to what it thought were two different individuals).  If this is
the case, it may affect which PIN you cancel. 
4.        Important: The first time a new PIN is used, an activation
step is required.  At this stage, the user will be asked to agree to a
number of certifications concerning the use of the PIN.  The most
important certification is: 

"I agree to keep the PIN confidential.  I will not disclose my PIN to
another person nor authorize another person [to] use the PIN.  If I know
or have reason to believe that the confidentiality of my PIN has been
compromised, I agree to immediately inform USAC and to deactivate my PIN
on the USAC web site." 

This means that, if an applicant's form signer and E-rate contact is not
the same person, the signer should not give the PIN information to the
contact to use.  To electronically certify a form, the signer must
personally do so online.  As a practical matter for applicants who take
certification seriously - which we encourage you to do - this may limit
the use of PINs (or at least require a change in internal procedures).
We suggest using one of the following options: 


a.        If the signer would otherwise be willing to let the contact
use his or her PIN - as we suspect is often the case - the current
signer would better advised to delegate signing authority to the E-rate
contact directly, then let the contact qualify for his or her own PIN. 
b.        If signing authority cannot be delegated, and the signer is
unwilling to the PIN online, then the applicant should continue to use
manually signed certifications. 
If a PIN's confidentiality has already been compromised (which might
well have occurred before reading the activation certifications), we
assume that it will be sufficient to "change" the PIN, rather than
having to "deactivate" it as stated in the certification.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.esu10.org/pipermail/e10-erate/attachments/20051216/b0d8e92c/attachment.htm