Benefits September 11, 2007

TSP Participants to no Longer Use Social to Access Accounts

September 11, 2007 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board has announced that starting October 1, Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) participants will begin using account numbers in place of Social Security numbers to access their accounts online.
Reported by

In addition, according to Govexec.com, participants will begin using passwords in place of 4-digit personal identification numbers in conjunction with the new account numbers for online transactions. The Web announcement said Social Security numbers will still be used in some situations, such as to help service representatives further verify participants’ identities.

In June, Mark Hagerty, the TSP’s chief information officer, announced the change from Social Security numbers along with other enhanced security measures (See TSP Takes New Measure to Enhance Data Security ).

After an e-mail hoax in March guided participants to a TSP look-alike Web site and asked for social security numbers and PINs (See Scammers ‘Phish’ for TSP Participant Info ), the National Security Agency entered into a working relationship with the Secret Service on information security efforts.

The text of the rule implementing the change is here .

«