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Defense Security Service (DSS) renamed Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA)

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If you hold a personal security clearance, or your business maintains a U.S. facility security clearance, then you need to be aware that the Defense Security Service (DSS) has recently been re-named, re-aligned and re-organized – with new leadership and broader responsibilities.

Pursuant to Executive Order 13869, “Transferring Responsibility for Background Investigations to the Department of Defense,” the Acting Secretary of Defense has renamed the former DSS to the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA).

Continue reading at:  Bradley

Four steps to fix the security clearance backlog

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Congress will get an update on the security clearance backlog this week, but if you can’t tune in, here’s the bottom line up front: the government has taken steps, there has been progress and the system is improving, but it’s not nearly enough.

There are still more than 600,000 government and industry employees waiting for security clearances from the federal government — highly skilled Americans who are sidelined because of bureaucratic red tape. Some have been waiting as long as 500 days just to go to work.

We in the aerospace and defense industry must frequently ask new employees to delay showing up for work, or do less important work, for months until their clearances are approved. The slow pace of background investigations impedes our industry’s ability to recruit the talented individuals we need to fulfill important roles, such as conducting space missions, managing cyber networks, and performing advanced manufacturing.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2018/12/four-steps-fix-security-clearance-backlog/153445

Industry seeks easy fixes to lengthy, redundant vetting process for DHS contractors

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Industry is pushing members of Congress to help the Homeland Security Department address a series of major roadblocks that companies have with the agency’s long, confusing and redundant process for vetting contractor personnel.

Most members of industry and Congress agree: the governmentwide security clearance process, which recently made its way back on the Government Accountability Office’s biennial High-Risk List, has its many challenges.

But the least DHS could do, industry said, is standardize and simplify the requirements it uses to determine whether contracting personnel are fit to work on behalf of the agency.

“We want them standardized,” Marc Pearl, president and CEO of the Homeland Security and Defense Business Council, said Tuesday at a hearing on the DHS vetting process.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsradio.com/workforce/2018/02/industry-seeks-easy-fixes-to-lengthy-redundant-vetting-process-for-dhs-contractors/

Why OPM is warning against DoD reclaiming the security clearance process

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When a backlog of pending security clearances piles up too high, Congress has one answer: Hand it to someone else.

That’s what lawmakers did in 2004, when the Defense Department had its own immense inventory of background investigations, and lawmakers, frustrated with DoD’s delays in processing them, called on the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to serve as the governmentwide security clearance provider.

Now, as the backlog, once again, reaches new extremes, Congress is taking a page out of its own history book and is sending the security clearance process back to the Pentagon.

Lawmakers included a provision in the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act that would give DoD complete ownership over the security clearance process for its own personnel.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsradio.com/opm/2017/11/why-opm-is-warning-against-dod-reclaiming-the-security-clearance-process/

Free webinar on facility security clearance process to be held Mar. 31

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The Florida 8(a) Alliance is hosting a briefing on how to begin the facility security clearance process so that your business can work on classified contracts.

The webinar — entitled “A Roadmap to the Facility Security Clearance (FCL) Process” — will be held on Friday, Mar. 31, 2017, from 1:00 to 2:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time.

The webinar is free and open to anyone.  Registration may be accomplished at: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/2974445415999054339.

The top 10 reasons people are denied a security clearance

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Defense Office of Hearing and AppealsIn 2016, the Defense Office of Hearing and Appeals held 1,142 security clearance appeals hearings.  They made decisions on security clearance eligibility, placement into public trust positions and Common Access Card denials.

If you are denied a security clearance or your security clearance is revoked due to adverse information that has been discovered or self-reported, you have the right to appeal the decision before DOHA.  A study of the cases and their outcomes offers a good chance to see the trends in security clearance denials, and what issues are likely to cause issues in your own background investigation.

Among the things you discover if you study DOHA cases for very long: Many cases look very similar and the primary issues remain the same from year to year.

To keep reading this article which includes the top 10 issues that appeared before the DOHA board in 2016, click on this link: http://www.govexec.com/excellence/promising-practices/2017/01/top-10-reasons-people-are-denied-security-clearance/134818

What are your odds of getting a security clearance?

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Is it easy to get a security clearance? It depends on who you ask.

Among the uncleared population there sometimes is a misperception that anyone can get a clearance, based on the millions of clearance-holders out there. In 2013, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper criticized the size of the cleared workforce in a memo that called for reducing the number of individuals with access to intelligence. Recently released figures show a 12 percent decline in the size of the cleared workforce.

Those who have gone through the security clearance process understand the significant headaches involved in both the initial background investigation as well as periodic reinvestigations. Obtaining a security clearance is no easy task, and not everyone who applies will be granted access.

To see a full-size infographic on the value of a security clearance, visit: http://www.clearancejobs.com/files/infographic.html.
To see a full-size infographic on the value of a security clearance, visit: http://www.clearancejobs.com/files/infographic.html.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/excellence/promising-practices/2015/05/what-are-your-odds-getting-security-clearance/113362/

Defense contractors fear blowback in wake of leak about NSA snooping

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Defense  contractors with top-secret clearances are bracing for blowback from the  explosive National Security Agency (NSA) leaks scandal.

Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden’s revelations about two National  Security Agency programs has shaken the military-industrial complex, raising  questions about whether the government has lost control over who is cleared to  see sensitive information.

Experts said the new leaks, which follow massive disclosures to WikiLeaks by  Bradley Manning, a military intel analyst now on trial, could intensify pressure  on Washington to restrict access more tightly, as well as tighten the vetting of  those given clearances.

But it will be difficult — if not impossible — to impose control on a system  in which 1.4 million people now have some kind of clearance to see classified  information.

Keep reading this article at: http://thehill.com/blogs/defcon-hill/policy-and-strategy/304633-defense-contractors-fear-blowback-in-wake-of-leak-about-nsa-snooping 

Report: Slight decline in 2011 contractor clearances from previous year

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The number of security clearances held by contractors slightly declined in 2011 compared to 2010, according to Fierce Government.

Citing a report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Molly Bernhart Walker wrote 4.86 million individuals held a clearance as of Oct. 1, 2011, with nearly 1.17 million of them contractors.

The previous year, 1.07 million contractors out of 4.71 million held a clearance.

Keep reading this article at http://www.executivegov.com/2012/07/report-slight-decline-in-2011-contractor-clearances-from-previous-year/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+execgov+%28Executive+Gov%29.

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