INQUIRY 17-01, Increased Security of Personally Identifiable Information (PII)

Published: March 29, 2017
Effective: Pay Period 06, 2017

Summary

To enhance the security of the Employee Personal Page (EPP) and the Reporting Center, the National Finance Center (NFC) will mask certain data fields that house Personally Identifiable Information (PII). Outlined below are the affects to the application in the Research and Inquiry (INQUIRY) category. This change also impacts the Reporting Center application in the Reporting (REPT) category. Information on those changes can be accessed in the Resources section of this bulletin.

Affected System

System

System Impact

EPP

New option will be added under the Preferences tab.

Implementation

A new default feature is being added to EPP to increase the security of PII. The default will now be to mask all PII. Employees will have the option to unmask and mask the data from the My EPP Home page under the Preferences tab by selecting Change PII. To return the data to a masked state during the same viewing session, the employee will select Change PII again. When employees log out of EPP, the data will default back to a masked state.

Note: Employees will need to perform the process for unmasking data whenever they log back into EPP.

Under the Personal Info menu option, the Self Service pages, and the Statement of Earnings and Leave, the following fields will be masked entirely with asterisks (*) on the Print Friendly, PDF, Excel and Word versions when viewed or printed:

On the EPP Login page, the email addresses that are presented when Forgot Your Password or Forgot Your User ID is selected (i.e., xxxxxst@msn.com) will be partially masked. The SSN will also be masked on IRS Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement, and IRS Form 1095-C, Employer-Provided Health Insurance Offer and Coverage.

Note: A banner will display at the top of each page containing PII to inform employees when the PII is masked or unmasked.

Resources

View Bulletin REPT 17-01, Increased Security of Personally Identifiable Information (PII), for impact to the Reporting Center.

The procedure manuals for these applications, which are available online at the NFC Web site, are being updated to include the information in this bulletin. To view these procedures, select HR and Payroll Clients from the MyNFC drop-down menu on the NFC homepage. At the HR and Payroll Clients page, select the Publications tab in the center ribbon and from there select the applicable category to access the procedure manuals within the category.

Inquiries

For questions about NFC processing, authorized Servicing Personnel Office representatives should contact the NFC Contact Center at 1-855-NFC-4GOV (1-855-632-4468) or via the Internet using the Requester Console.