The IRS Security Summit imposed stricter requirements for handling sensitive taxpayer data. As members of the Summit, we are upgrading our products to meet the recommendations and best practices set forth by the Summit in IRS Publication 4557 - Safeguarding Taxpayer Data.

ATX™ now requires all users to establish a user account and password. Passwords must follow these guidelines:

• 8 - 20 characters
• At least 1 UPPER case letter
• At least 1 lower case letter
• At least 1 number
• At least 1 punctuation or special character (ex.? ! $ & * )
• Spaces are allowed

Additional Password Requirements that have been set are:

• Passwords expire every 90 days: Users will be able to reset their own passwords
• Login will be required after 30 minutes of inactivity
• Login will be required every 24 hours

Note: After 5 failed login attempts, users will be locked out of the system. Administrators will be able to unlock these users. Admin users who are locked out will be required to enter the product activation code to unlock the Admin account. 

Additional Information

• For more information on unlocking or resetting a users password, see our solution on how to unlock or reset a user's password in ATX ™ .
• For information on where to locate the product activation and registration codes, see our solution on how to find my CCH SFS product activation and registration codes .