In early February of 2019, multiple users of OFAC’s data files contacted OFAC’s technical support hotline to report difficulty in downloading sanctions list data files hosted at this URL: https://www.treasury.gov/ofac/downloads/. After investigating the issue, the Treasury Department discovered that changes had been made regarding HTTP request methods. These changes generally affected users that leverage command line connections to Treasury’s website. Users who download OFAC’s sanctions list data files manually via browser will not be impacted by this change.
Previously users were allowed to request sanctions list data files via HTTP using both POST and GET commands. The change made in February eliminated users’ ability to use the POST command and only GET commands are allowed henceforth. This change was made to improve the security for public file repositories and is a permanent change. Users who continue to have difficulty downloading OFAC’s sanctions list data files due to this change are welcome to contact OFAC at O_F_A_C@treasury.gov or contact OFAC’s technical support hotline at 1-800-540-6322 – Menu Option 8 for assistance.
OFAC understands that this change may have unexpectedly interrupted users’ ability to download and access OFAC data and is working with Treasury’s technical team to ensure advance notification of any future changes.