'Root Cause Analysis' of Internal CBP ACE Outage Underway

CBP is still looking at the reason behind an internal ACE issue that left some agency users unable to access several functions (see 1712220011), a CBP spokesman said. The problems began on Dec. 22 when "internal CBP users who were not already logged into certain functionality associated with [ACE] were unable to access that functionality," he said. "A root cause analysis on the reason for the issue is underway. Internal users who were already logged in when the issue began were able to continue working."

Although "the inability to access ACE Cargo Release, [Automated Targeting System] Cargo, and [the Cargo Enforcement Reporting and Tracking System] prevented CBP officers from releasing shipments that were being held for exam or review, this impacted less than 1% of all entries filed," he said. Affected cargo processes were "Cargo Release, Entry Summary, e214, eBond, Protest, Quota, PGA and DIS," he said.

The outage did not involve several other system functions, which performed normally, he said. "Trade cargo transaction processing, trade access to the ACE Portal, and trade and International Trade Data System (ITDS) data submissions were not impacted," he said. "CBP access to ACE reports and ACE manifest processing also was not impacted. By mid-afternoon on December 22, 2017, all functionality was fully restored. CBP continues to monitor the system closely."