Until recently, most federal employees and contractors with security clearances would go through a reinvestigation every five to 10 years, a timeframe that opened up the possibility that someone could develop a security compromise and continue to hold a clearance, and it was contributing to the backlog in background investigations.
In 2018, the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) launched Trusted Workforce 2.0, an initiative to overhaul the personnel vetting process by creating one government-wide system that allows reciprocity across organizations. This includes moving from periodic reinvestigations every five to 15 years towards a Continuous Vetting (CV) program, which protects the trusted workforce in real-time.
Earlier this month, the Center announced that all DoD clearance holders were now part of its continuous vetting program, and it is on track to have all agencies and contractors onboarded by the end of 2023. “We want to increase the number of data points that we’re collecting, and we want to make it go across the entire U.S. government workforce. We’re not quite there yet, but we’re well on our way,” said William Lietzau during a roundtable with the House Oversight and Reform Committee.
How does Continuous Vetting (CV) work?
According to the DCSA, CV involves regularly reviewing a cleared individual’s background to ensure they continue to meet security clearance requirements and should continue to hold positions of trust. Automated record checks pull data from criminal, terrorism, and financial databases, as well as public records, at any time during an individual’s period of eligibility. When DCSA receives an alert, it assesses whether the alert is valid and worthy of further investigation. DCSA investigators then gather facts and make clearance determinations. CV helps DCSA mitigate personnel security situations before they become more significant problems, either by working with the cleared individual to mitigate potential issues or, in some cases suspending or revoking clearances.
Is it working?
It does appear to be working. According to CleranceJobs.com, the efforts of Trusted Workforce 2.0 are going so well that the National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC) is already looking into what comes next. “We’re looking at this as what else can we do while we have momentum going forward?” said NCSC Director William Evanina. “Now might be the time to enhance 2.0 and say what would 2.5 and 3.0 look like?”
I am keeping my eye on changes to the criteria, standards, and processes as we move towards full implementation over the next couple of years.
Article Written by:
Security First & Associates
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