Security Clearance Insecurity

A new book by Danny Olmes, President at Xcelerate Solutions, spotlights how ordinary moments can be pivotal ones. Memoirs of an Ordinary Guy details many seemingly ordinary moments that led to extraordinary shifts - in mindset, career path, or spiritual journey. Olmes discusses his book, including how a chance encounter in a parking garage led him down a writing path, and how living and working in...

Insider threat topics are in the news today - but the idea of insider threat is nothing new. Policies for insider threat training and how to conform to the National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual (NISPOM) are well established, but today is a good time to refresh your program and ensure compliance. Jeffrey Bennett, security and risk management consultant and author of a recently relea...

Alisha Jordan, education director at the National Cryptologic Foundation chats with ClearanceJobs about the role of the Foundation and their current efforts to help attract young people into cybersecurity and codebreaking careers. Cyber Saturday is taking place June 10, and will bring together young people, mentors, and cybersecurity pros to help inspire the next generation. Learn more about the f...

Congress began looking into security clearance procedures after classified documents were found in former president Donald Trump's Mar a Lago residence, with new legislation released following the latest alleged leak by Airman Jack Teixeira. Critics argue there are too many people with clearances, and congress is asking agencies to draw their numbers down. ClearanceJobs sat down with Charles Phale...

Lynn Burns, president of NCMS and Sarah Turner, member of the board of directors, NCMS, discuss the upcoming NCMS 2023 Annual Seminar on this episode of Security Clearance Insecurity. NCMS is a professional security organization that has existed for more than 50 years, helping to train, certify, and advance the security profession. Burns and Turner discussed what can be expected at this year's tra...

The security clearance process is in the spotlight. But the reality is the transformative effort to improve the security clearance process has been underway for the past several years, with significant new benchmarks announced just this month at the recent U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing on Capitol Hill. Jason Miller, Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget and...

Retired USMC Commander, former USCYBERCOM Commander and Defense Intelligence Agency Director Vincent Stewart certainly has more than enough laurels to rest on. But he's not sitting down, or spending too much time looking back - he's still moving forward, with a lot of expertise and insights to give. But he is ready for a bit of celebration - and that's what many in the intelligence community plan...

Cyber hygiene, CMMC, and ransomware - oh my! - we unpack the state of the current cyber threat landscape with Kurtis Minder, CEO and founder of GroupSense , a digital risk protection agency with expertise across a variety of digital risk arenas. A variety of factors contributed to the steep rise in ransomware attacks across the past several years, including the growth in cryptocurrency and a globa...

National security remains a male-dominated field, with a higher percentage of men filling a variety of roles including those in many security offices. But that's changing , and more women aren't just entering security careers but advancing within them, as well. ClearanceJobs spoke with Amy Grossman, security manager at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory . Within the Lin...

The Office of Personnel Management recently released a draft version if its new Personnel Vetting Questionnaire , an update to the SF-86, SF-85, and SF-85P forms in one, segmented package. In a period of open comment the Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA), provided their feedback on everyone's security clearance form. Larry Hanauer, Vice President of Policy for INSA chats about the...

The intersection of counterintelligence, security clearances, and personnel vetting is what the National Counterintelligence and Security Center does. Michael Orlando, current head of NCSC talks about the current state of suitability, personnel vetting, and efforts to protect U.S. technology and advantage. In the second half of the program security clearance attorney Sean Bigley and ClearanceJobs'...

Security cleared recruiting continues to be a challenge, and 2023 is poised to be the toughest year yet. Evan Lesser, founder and president of ClearanceJobs.com unpacks the macro and micro aspects of the security clearance hiring marketplace. While the number of individuals with a clearance is growing, the world of work is changing. Remote work and the great resignation have created market dynamic...

The holidays can be hard. And there are a few particular hang-ups that crank up around the holidays and could certainly cost you your security clearance. DUIs , sexual behavior issues , and money problems can all come up with increasing frequency over the holiday season. Your clearance eligibility is too important to toss away with a couple of bad decisions. The good news is steps toward being pro...

Hon. Ellen McCarthy, chairwoman and CEO of the Truth in Media Cooperative and the former Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Intelligence and Research joins us to discuss the role of information and media and how disinformation and misinformation are affecting the security landscape. She also discusses the need to break down barrier for the IC to both access and disseminate the open sou...

The Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC) is one of the largest technology councils in the nation and represents the region's technology industry. As the cybersecurity hub of the nation, the Northern Virginia job market is hot, with employers large and small competing for tech talent and thousands of job opportunities available. Jennifer Taylor, president and CEO of NVTC talks with Federal N...

Insider threats are a major risk to all companies, not just those in the national security space. But it's important to know who the threat actors are - and why they're acting. Dr. Eric Lang, director of the DoD Personnel and Security Research Center, or PERSEREC, discusses his work on insider threat, and why non-malicious actors are as concerning as the headline grabbing cases we see. You can rea...

A key focus in the national security space today remains making national security careers more accessible for diverse populations. Lauren Bacon Smith, Chief People Officer at Enabled Intelligence discusses how her company works to make national security careers more accessible to diverse audiences. From improving questions and streamlining the interview process, to providing advice and assistance...

Next week ClearanceJobs is hosting Connect 2022, the only conference designed to bring recruiters, talent acquisition professionals and security officers together to discuss issues in the national security hiring space. There is still time to register to attend . Speakers include the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency, the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, Avantus Fede...

Space is one of those topics that at least in theory unites Americans. We all love to watch a big rocket go boom - or up. But the devil is in the details, and the devil is certainly where we meet some of the issues that were recently uncovered in NASA's attempted launch of the more than 4 billion dollar Artemis rocket. To discuss Artemis, space, and the attempt to once again get to the moon and be...

News of Donald Trump possibly having classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence have led to a flood of online experts sharing their own clearances and security clearance stories. Love Rutledge, a 22-year-federal employee and host of the FedUpward podcast talks about best practices for federal employees navigating classification news in the headlines . The bottom line is you shouldn't be shar...

The Pentagon is America's largest office building, and if you work in the national security community, particularly in the Washington, D.C. metro, there is a decent chance you'll work there at some point in your career. For the majority of professionals, it is either a love or hate relationship. Perfecting the concept of 'home away from home' well before Google, the Pentagon truly is a stand-alone...

What is the state of the security clearance process today, as Trusted Workforce 2.0 reforms are implemented and the cleared workforce adjusts to a 'post' COVID working environment? ClearanceJobs sat down with Lisa Reidy, Vice President of Security at GDIT, to discuss the status of personnel security today. Reidy discussed significant improvements in security clearance timelines and how GDIT is see...

NISPOM Change 2 went into effe ct in May of 2016, codifying policies around insider threat training and mitigation for contractors within the defense industrial base . Still today questions about insider threat and how to stop the next Snowden or Alexis are ever hot topics for security offices today. Tom Langer, principal of Atlantic Security Advisors, an industrial security, risk mitigation, and...

Security clearance mobility is the latest topic of a white paper released by the Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA). We sat down with Larry Hanauer, vice president for policy at the INSA, and Gregory Torres, director of personnel security at Booz Allen and chair of the personnel security working group at INSA. They discussed why security clearance mobility is a critical national se...

The Defense Office of Hearings and Appeals performs a critical function in the security clearance process - adjudicating cases and making decisions on denials and revocations. To learn more about the DoD CAF, we chatted with Aileen Xenakis-Kozlowski, attorney with the law term Bigley Ranish and a former attorney with the DoD CAF. We discussed the upcoming consolidation of the Defense Office of Hea...