Posted on 10/16/2021 7:43:02 PM PDT by Ben Dover
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.
Continuous vetting replaces the prior process of periodic reinvestigations for clearance holders every five to 10 years. The idea is that the new program will identify potential security threats as they occur in real time, allowing risks to surface sooner to enable earlier intervention.
“If you get [charged with driving under the influence], that’ll come in the next day,” Lietzau said, explaining how fast the new system works.
Once the automated system alerts of a risk factor, staff at the agency then initiate an investigation to analyze whether the issue should be further analyzed or considered an active threat, he said.
In addition to criminal conduct, the system also analyzes suspicious financial transactions, domestic and foreign travel records, terrorism and counterterrorism databases and other public records for indicators of insider threats, Lietzau said.
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.
“It replaces a suite of outdated legacy IT systems that no longer meet the needs of the U.S. government,” DCSA said in the statement.
While all troops, Defense Department civilians and defense contractors with clearances are now in the system, Lietzau said 29 other federal agencies, including the Federal Aviation Administration and Department of Health and Human Services, are also vetting their clearance holders this way.
The system is already working, Lietzau said. In January, it detected a federal employee was under “an active investigation by another agency for potential terrorism activities, including a plan targeting United States facilities and ties to know or suspected terrorists,” he said.
In another case, the system alerted the DCSA that an arrest warrant was issued for a federal employee accused of attempted murder and felonious assault, Lietzau said. The agency then contacted law enforcement to validate the employee was the wanted person and provided information that helped police apprehend the suspect.
“The key is that the alert information developed through the DCSA continuous vetting system was received and validated five and a half years before the subject’s next periodic reinvestigation,” Lietzau said.
The DCSA is continuing to enroll other federal agencies in the program and working to expand data sources from which the vetting system can pull information, Lietzau said.
The agency is now running pilot programs to test how social media information could be included, Lietzau said. One day, biometrics beyond standard fingerprint analysis could be used, as well.
Whether or not that kind of information will be used, though, will be up to policymakers, he said.
“We’re building into the IT systems -- with a view toward the future – the ability to collect biometric data,” Lietzau said. “But there are all of the concerns that you can imagine that we work through and policymakers are working through.”
Shouldn’t that have been the policy all along?
I deemed that I would give up my clearance when my next PR came up because of this “continuous vetting” process.
I signed the debriefing part of the SF 312 earlier this year, left the country, and don’t regret it for a second.
Post something pro-MAGA on FB, get your clearance revoked immediately. Burn down a court house in Oregon with BLM, get promoted.
Are you now, or have you ever been, a Republican?
How Democrats judge people.
(the ability to collect biometric data,)
What could possibly go wrong?
“Now”?????
HELL NO.
You are giving Big Brother official permission to spy on you 100% of every day (your cell phone location, your Internet interactions, every transaction from your bank, etc)
Be 5 days late on a bill payment (ONE TIME) and your clearance gets suspended until they can give you a review (basically a procto exam of your life)?
No thanks!
They should be so diligent about our politicians, illegals, and “refugees”.
It states.....”Once the automated system alerts of a risk factor, STAFF at the agency then initiate an investigation”....
Wolfs guarding the hen house.
You are all kinds of special.
What if they discover an employee’s a commie infiltrator seeking to destroy the United States?
I’m guessing that person gets a pass...
Now, it’s being done to create a Red Guard.
Continuous Vetting won't catch it. A commie infiltrator will be smart enough not to not be late on his bills, not post stupid sh*t on Fakebook, and very carefully avoid any interaction with the police (tickets, etc).
Let’s track everything you do, good, bad or indifferent as a condition of your life. Then we’ll let some hack that probably hates you and all you do and stand for evaluate it to see if he / she / it thinks it is OK. Then we’ll see how you like it.
have a nice life
Hunter Biden too?
I’m sure they are NOT tracking if you are homosexual, a cross-dresser, a tranny, antifa or BLM.
>>What if they discover an employee’s a commie infiltrator seeking to destroy the United States?<<
Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Ilhan Omar, Joe Biden, AOC — nothing will happen to them, because they’re executing the prescribed plan.
All you will get out of this is a continual wave of 30-to-60 day suspensions while they review your ‘problem’ (which you may or may not have). So ‘Joe’ might have some critical program he’s running for the Navy with a two-week deadline for delivery, and wake up to find he’s on a 30-day suspension for something that his wife or his husband wrote on some Facebook page about criticizing Hunter Biden six years ago.
Everyone from this point on (with a clearance) will get at least one 30-day suspension every two or three years while they discuss your potential betrayal. It’ll just drag on until people see no reason to hold a job that requires a clearance.
Hillary, Biden, McCabe, Comey, Wray, Schumer, Brennan, etc all still hold clearances. The red Chinese stole ALL the SF-86 forms. Half the engineers are Chinese. Clearances are essentially meaningless now.
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