Continuous Vetting For All DOD Security Clearance Holders In New DCSA Program

The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA), a Department of Defense (DOD) agency, announced all clearance holders within the DOD, including service members, civilians, and contractors, are enrolled in a continuous vetting (CV) program – a process including 3.6 million individuals. In the program’s final form, all security clearance holders across the federal government will be included in the CV process.

As previously reported in FEDmanager, before this policy streamlining the process under DCSA, agencies had their own procedures in vetting – this change was the first reform to the vetting process is 50 years.

DCSA’s new program makes considerable headway in the agency’s Trusted Workforce (TW) 2.0 goal for CV of all government personnel, replacing the periodic process of investigations conducted every five years for those with top secret clearance and 10 for secret clearance. At present, the initial version of CV is in use – the process requires DCSA receive records from government and commercial data sources, then a suite of algorithms scan the data reports for potential issues or suspicious activity through the National Background Investigation Services (NBIS).

“Not only does this allow us to help ensure the trustworthiness of the national security workforce,” stated William Lietzau, DCSA Director, “It helps identify and address factors that may lead to insider threat incidents, all while maximizing efficiencies across government.”

The new system is already proving a success. In particular, the algorithm reported an alert the day following the issuance of a fugitive arrest warrant for attempted murder with felony assault, among other charges. After validation of the alert, the individual was immediately apprehended with their security clearance revoked.

“Issues of potential risk to an individual's trustworthiness that may have taken years to discover in the past are now identified and addressed in very near real-time data," stated Heather Green, DCSA Assistant Director of Vetting Risk Operations, "If we had not had this individual enrolled in continuous vetting, there's a high potential that we may not have been aware of the situation until the next periodic investigation.”

The next phase of integration into the CV program includes the expansion of reporting data categories, including financial activity and foreign travel. Policy discussions are now occurring on the inclusion of social media monitoring.