Menu 10.1.6 - Passwords

The user login and password security system in The Collector System protects all the files, programs, and data within the system. These user logins and passwords reduce the likelihood of unauthorized persons gaining access to sensitive information.

You can control access to certain areas of The Collector System by setting user logins and passwords for those areas. The Collector System includes the following types:

• Master password
• Password
• User login
• Direct access
• Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)

Each user in The Collector System has their own user login, selected either by the user or the system administrator. Each user creates a password to use with the user login to ensure security from unauthorized access. For more information, see Changing a password.

You can keep track of user name, user login, and password changes using the Change User Login and Password Controls options in the Agency Change log. The Change User Login option displays the old user login and the new user logins along with the date, time, and the initials of the user who made the change. It also logs the changes to all other passwords accessed through the Password Update Routine window, such as the master password, management work strategies password, and the legal screen password.

For security reasons, the Agency Change log does not display the actual old or new user logins or passwords. The log only shows that they have been changed.

The Password Controls option logs any changes made to the password controls, but because the password is changed at login time, it does not track old or new passwords. For more information, see Menu 10.1.29 - Agency Change Log.

Starting with The Collector System 2015, The Collector System uses the database encryption available in jBASE and UniVerse. If your agency does not use the most current version or jBASE or UniVerse and The Collector System, then the encryption method differs, as listed in the following table:

Operating system	TCS version	Encryption method
jBASE 5.1 or UniVerse 11.1 or higher.	TCS 2015 or newer.	jBASE or UniVerse database encryption.
jBASE 4.1 or UniVerse 10.1 or lower.	TCS 2015 or newer.	The same encryption method used by The Collector System 2014 or earlier. When you upgrade to jBASE 5.1 or UniVerse 11.1 (or higher) after you install TCS 2015, the encryption method changes on-demand when a user enters their password. To encrypt all the passwords with database encryption at once, you can run the CONVERT-PASSWORDS XLIB routine.

The encryption method for passwords in The Collector System is a one-way process, which means that you cannot decrypt a password. If a user forgets their password, your system administrator needs to create a new temporary password, and after the user logs on, they will need to change the temporary password to a new password that only they know.

The Collector System also allows you to control and manage which users can perform inquiries. You can prevent users from accessing the inquiry feature for all logons or specific logons, depending on whether or not you are using a version of The Collector System that supports the cross-logon inquiry feature.