Justification for the Non-Substantive Changes to 0960-0626 (ITMod Change Request)

Justification for the Non-Substantive Changes for

Integrated Registration Services (IRES) System

20 CFR 401.45

OMB No. 0960-0626

Background

The Integrated Registration Services (IRES) system is an electronic authentication process by which the Social Security Administration (SSA) registers and authenticates users of our online business services. SSA will eventually incorporate IRES into SSA’s Public Credentialing and Authentication Process (OMB Control No. 0960-0789); however, for now we are maintaining it as a separate authentication system. Through IRES we collect the personal information one time only when the individual registers to use our online business services. Respondents are employers; employees; third party submitters of wage data business entities providing taxpayer identification information; appointed representatives; representative payees; and data exchange partners conducting business in support of SSA programs.

We are currently updating IRES to ensure continued security and to enhance the system. Due to a recent incident of fraudulent automated logins, we are placing a Re-Captcha on the sign in and registration pages to thwart any further possible fraudulent logins or registrations and ensure the security of the application.

To enhance the security as quickly as possible, we will implement this new, non-substantive revision in September 2022. Therefore, we are asking for OMB’s approval of this revision by Friday, September 16, 2022 , to ensure we can implement on time.

Revisions to the Collection Instrument

• Change #1: We are introducing Re-Captcha for all BSO sign ins as well as new account registrations.

Justification #1: We are introducing Re-Captcha to IRES to thwart any possible fraudulent logins or registrations from automated robots and to ensure security of the system.

This revision will not affect the current public reporting burden for this information collection. As stated above, we will implement upon OMB’s approval.

Future Plans

Due to the agile nature of our projects, we expect to eventually move applications from IRES to a more secure platform. At this time, we are still finalizing our IT modernization plans for these plans. We expect to submit another change request within six to nine months to request approval for additional updates to the system, and potentially, update the burden to include more users if we are able to move applications to a new platform.