Form BA-6a (E-mail) (cu BA-6a (E-mail) (cu BA-6a, BA-6 Address Report

Progranl
Letter

United States
Railroad Retirement Board

Office of Programs
Quality Reporting Service Center

Letter No. 2007-05
Date: February 16,2007

Phone: (312) 751-4992
Fax:
(312) 751-7190
E-mail: arsc@,rrb.gov
TO:
SUBJECT:

Certification Contact Officials
E-mail Submission of Form BA-6a, "BA-6 Address Report"

Please share this information with all your staff who file Form BA-6a, BA-6 Address Report, as
well as programming staff that support this function.

Background
Employee address records are maintained for the purpose of mailing to the employee Form
BA-6, "Certificate of Service Months and Compensation ". Employers are required to file Form
BA-6a, "BA-6 Address Report ",with the RRB for new hires only. This report is due by April I
each year. If you have no new hires, no address report is necessary. It is the employee's
responsibility to report any address change to the Railroad Retirement Board (RRB).
Instructions for an employee to report subsequent address changes are on the employee's BA-6.
An employee can also report an address change to their local RRB office.

New Reporting Option
The RRB now offers an e-mail equivalent of Form BA-6a that can be used starting with the
reporting season that begins January 1,2007. Addresses for new hires are currently reported
on:
Paper Form BA-6a;
Magnetic media (cartridge, disk, or CD-ROM);
Computer listing; or
On the Internet via the Employer Reporting System (ERS).

Secure E-mail Using Digital IDS
Because Form BA-6a contains sensitive personal information such as social security numbers,
we must exchange e-mail information securely to insure that no one can intercept and read or
alter the information.
Accordingly, we are required to take security precautions that meet the standards currently
prescribed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). To meet these
security requirements all e-mail messages we exchange must be encrypted and signed with a
Digital ID, and information will be protected in accordance with security controls outlined in
NIST guidance 800-53."
A Digital ID or certificate is a computer file that identifies the sender. E-mail software uses this
file to "digitally" sign e-mail messages to prove a sender's identity to the recipient's computer.
A digital signature does two things:
It lets the recipient of the e-mail confirm the identity of the sender, and
It tells the recipient that the e-mail was not tampered with in transit.
A Digital ID typically contains the following information:
Your public key
Your name and e-mail address
Expiration date of the public key
Name of the company [the Certification Authority (CA)] who issued your Digital ID
Serial number of the Digital ID
Digital signature of the CA

Encrvption
To encrypt (scramble) data we use a system with two keys. The key pair consists of a public and
a private key. The keys are used like keys in a lock, except the key pair requires one key to
secure the lock and another to open the lock.
When you request and install a Digital ID, your Web browser creates both a private key that can
only be used with the Digital ID you requested, and a public key that becomes part of your
Digital ID. Access to your private key will be password protected.
With key pairs, your e-mail application will use the RRBYspublic key to encrypt messages you
send to us. The RRB, upon receipt of your encrypted e-mail message, will use our matching
private key to decrypt the message.

Secure E-mail Process
Before you can send the RRB an encrypted message, you must first get our public key. You do
this by simply requesting that we send you a signed e-mail message, which contains our Digital
ID and public key. Then your e-mail application can automatically store the RRB's Digital ID
with public key in your contacts folder until you need to use it. Your e-mail application uses the
RRB public key to encrypt the messages you send to us. From that point on, only the RRB's
private key can decrypt the message.
When the RRB sends you an encrypted message, we will use your public key. Once the e-mail
message is encrypted with your public key, only those individuals in your organization who have
the matching private key can decrypt the message.
Steps:
1. Acquire a Digital ID from a company called a Certification Authority (CA), for example,
Verisign or Thawte Certification. The cost of an individual Digital ID is about $20.00
per year.
2. Once you have received and installed a Digital ID, distribute it to the RRB by sending an
e-mail message to the '[email protected]' mailbox. The Digital ID that you send contains
your public key. This will allow the RRB to send you encrypted e-mail messages using
your public key. Only you will have the corresponding private key that allows you to
decrypt the RRB reply.
3. The RRB will acknowledge your e-mail submission by sending you our public key for
the '[email protected]' mailbox. This will allow you to send encrypted E-mail requests
containing the RRB's public key. Only the RRB will have the corresponding private key
to decrypt the e-mail message.
4. Once the parties have stored each others' Digital IDS, all further e-mail exchanges can be
made securely.

E-mail Submissions of Form BA-6a
In order to verify that the holder of the employer's Digital ID or certificate is authorized to
prepare and electronically submit reports on behalf of the railroad, the employer must complete
RRB Form G- 117a, "Designation of Contact Official " (OMB approved 3220-0200) to provide
the identifying information we will use to establish the authorized railroad employee(s) in our
database. From that point on, a Form G-440, Reports Specification Sheet, which must be
signed by a contact official, must be faxed to A&T-Quality Reporting Service Center with
every e-mail.
To facilitate reporting of addresses for multiple employees, please prepare a text file using the
format and instructions described below. Each e-mail must include the employer's name and
employer number (BA number), as well as the number of records on the file. The file records

must be 120 characters in length. Any fields not used should be left blank. There should be no
record which contains blank address data. Save the file in ASCII character format as a text
document and send the file as an attachment to your e-mail message. The Form BA-6a record
layout is shown below.
Position

Data and Instructions

1-9

The employee's 9-digit social security number.

10-11

Initials of the employee's first and middle names.
The employee's last name (up to 14 characters only). Leave blank
positions blank.

26-50

Mailing Address (Street number, Post Office Box, etc.).

5 1-75

Second address line.

76-93

City.

94-95

State. Use two-digit state abbreviations as shown in the U.S. Postal
Guide.

96- 100

ZIP code.

101-104

Four-digit BA number assigned by the RRB.

105-120

BLANK.

Paperwork Reduction Act Notice
The information specified in this report, which is required by law under section 7(b)(6) of the
Railroad Retirement Act (RRA) and Section 209.12 of the Code of Federal Regulations, will be
used by the Railroad Retirement Board to mail to the employees of your company Form BA-6,
Certificate of Service Months and Compensation. Failure to report or the making of a false or
fraudulent report can result in criminal prosecution or civil penalties, or both.
We estimate the e-mail equivalent of Form BA-6a takes an average of 15 minutes per response to
complete, including the time needed for reviewing the instructions, getting the needed data, and
reviewing the completed form. Federal agencies may not conduct or sponsor, and respondents
are not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a valid OMB
number. If you wish, send comments regarding the accuracy of our estimate or any other aspect
of this form, including suggestions for reducing completion time, to Chief of Information
Resources Management, Railroad Retirement Board, 844 Rush St, Chicago, Illinois 6061 1-2092.