This is a game changer, and most of us should sleep better tonight…
The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency has successfully enrolled all Defense Department service members, civilians and contractors with a security clearance — about 3.6 million people — in its current continuous vetting program.
Clearance holders with something to hide are probably already sweating….
Stars and Stripes
WASHINGTON – All Defense Department clearance holders are now under “continuous vetting” as part of a reform to the personnel security process that determines who should have access to classified information and secure facilities, the director of the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency said Tuesday.
The automated system constantly checks criminal records, credit ratings and other pertinent information for those with security clearances to “ensure the trustworthiness of the national security workforce” and “identify and address factors that may lead to insider threat incidents,” DCSA director William Lietzau told reporters at the Pentagon.
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The initiative is part of the director of National Intelligence’s Trusted Workforce 2.0, an interagency effort launched in 2018 to modernize the security clearance system to “deliver stronger security, faster processing and better information sharing,” the agency said in a statement issued Tuesday.
Life moves pretty fast in the 21st Century….
The Hill
The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) — the government arm that gives security clearances to government employees — previously checked individuals’ criminal histories and credit reports once every 10 years if they had a secret clearance and every five years if they possessed top secret clearance.
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The new scrutiny of Defense employees will aid the Biden administration’s wider plan to address domestic terrorism, an issue put in stark relief following the events of the Jan. 6 insurrection on the Capitol Building by supporters hoping to keep former President Trump in power. A number of current and former military members were found to have participated in the violent attack.
In April, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin moved to set up new screening procedures as part of an effort to weed out extremists in the military.
There are issues regarding the use of social media in the system...
Military Times
The effort feeds directly into DoD initiatives to monitor extremist affiliations and behavior, including the objective to be better able to intervene. That could eventually include monitoring social media activity.
“We already have several pilot programs we’re working on, to look at the value of social media, and how you can look at it ― whether it’s an event-driven look at social media; whether it’s a regular, continuous look at some social media; or whether it’s a one-time, when they’re investigated, look at social media,” Lietzau said. “There’s different ways you could use some of the social media search capabilities that are out there. We’re still right now analyzing how much value we think there is.”
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Eventually, as part of a broader effort subbed Trusted Workforce 2.0, all periodic investigations will be completely replaced by the National Background Investigation Services, a personnel vetting system still under development.
The goal is to have the entire federal government on that system by the end of 2023.
It can’t happen fast enough...