Security Clearance Jobs Blog

The Defense Security Service (DSS) announced that effective on August 29, 2011 as part of a Joint Personnel Adjudication System (JPAS) release update (version 4.3.0.0), the new 2010 Standard Form 86 (Questionnaire for National Security Positions) will be available for use by federal contractors using JPAS.  A new “Fair Credit Release” form will be required as part of the SF86.

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On June 3, 2011 the Defense Security Service (DSS) posted “A Quick Reference Guide for the Newly Updated Standard Form 86” (QRG). “This QRG contains detailed field descriptions, step-by-step instructions, and a link to a printable form to help you determine what information you need to gather.” Unfortunately the printable form (July 2008 version) has not yet been updated to the March 2010 version.

This QRG provides 15 pages of detailed instructions for completing the SF86—much more comprehensive than anything previously published by DSS or the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). There are several errors and discrepancies in the QRG when compared to the internal instructions in the SF86 posted at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Reginfo.gov website.  For example the QRG indicates that only 7 years of residence information is needed for NACLC/Secret; whereas the OMB version indicates that 10 years of information is needed and make no distinction between NACLC/Secret and SSBI/Top Secret. There are also “years of coverage” discrepancies for the sections on “Where You Went to School” and “Employment Activities.” The section on “Use of Alcohol” leads off with “This section requires you to provide information regarding your illegal use of drugs. . . .” The section on “Relatives” indicates that a yes or no response is possible, and if a no response is selected the program will skip over this section and proceed to the next section.

Despite the errors, DSS should be applauded for creating the QRG. Hopefully within the weeks to come, they will correct these problems and expand on what they have already provided.

A sorely needed new capability to transmit attachments by scanning and uploading or by faxing has apparently been added to the SF86 e-QIP. This will enable to applicants to submit supporting documents directly to the Defense Industrial Security Clearance Office or other Government security office.

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Interim security clearances are critical for many security clearance applicants. Unlike final clearances, which can take months, interim clearances can be processed in as little as a few days. They’re also crucial for agencies who need to fill positions quickly, without waiting months for the security clearance adjudication process.

If you’ve been denied an interim security clearance, don’t assume all hope is lost. Only about 1 percent of final security clearances are denied; the rate is 20 – 30 percent for interim clearances. Often issues that come up in the denial of an interim clearance can be mitigated through the interview and adjudication process.

Read the full article on interim security clearances and tell us your experiences in the comments section.

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While lying on a job application has its repercussions, a young Michigan man found that lying on a CIA job application landed him in jail.

The Washington Post reported that Glenn Duffie Shriver, 28, was arrested on June 22 for lying on his CIA job application about his work with Chinese intelligence that netted him $70,000. He now faces five counts of making false statements that could land him a maximum of five years in prison, if convicted.

Federal prosecutors allege Shriver met repeatedly with foreign intelligence officers and traveled to China in 2007.

Shriver’s mother, Karen Chavez, told a Detroit television station that Shriver moved to China for work during a SARS outbreak. He later moved to South Korea for a job teaching English.

Shriver was arrested at Detroit Metro Airport while attempting to fly back to South Korea.

Shriver is one of more than 40 suspected Chinese agents in the U.S. who have been arrested and prosecuted for espionage-related charges over the past two years. The number of prosecuted Chinese spies is much higher than the 10 Russian spies discovered recently.

“In recent years, the Justice Department has handled an increasing number of prosecutions involving sensitive American weapons technology, trade secrets and other restricted information bound for China,” said Dean Boyd, a spokesman for the Justice Department’s National Security Division to the Washington Post.

The Justice Department had convicted 44 individuals in 26 cases since March 2008, almost all of whom are now serving time in federal prisons Boyd revealed to the Washington Post.

Last February, a Chinese-born engineer was sentenced to more than 15 years in prison for hoarding sensitive information about the U.S. space shuttle that prosecutors say he intended to share with China.

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On March 10, 2010 the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approved a new version of the Standard Form 86—SF86 (Questionnaire for National Security Positions). The only description of the new form currently available is a PDF file, consisting of 453 pages of explanations and screen shots of the eQIP version, posted at the reginfo.gov website. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has not yet posted the new form at their website. The last revision of the SF86 was approved in July 2008. OPM did not post that version of the form on their website until October 2008 and the eQIP version was not available for use by contractors until January 2009.

The new March 2010 version of the SF86 is considerably different and longer than the version submitted for public comment in September 2009. That version was described on this blog at “OPM Submits New SF86 for Review” in October 2009. Major changes now include:

• Purpose of this form—“This form may also be used by agencies in determining whether a subject performing work for, or on behalf of, the Government under a contract should be deemed eligible for logical or physical access when the nature of the work to be performed is sensitive and could bring about an adverse effect on the national security.”
• History of residences, schools, and employment require 10 years of information for all levels of clearances.
• Many new and expanded questions were added regarding foreign connections, foreign involvement, and foreign travel.
• Reportable foreign associates now include those with whom you are bound by a “common interest” (a significant change that may affect social media contacts).
• New and expanded questions were added regarding financial records, police records, drugs, alcohol, and mental health.

These changes are in line with the Joint Security and Suitability Reform Team’s (JSSRT) planned expansion of upfront comprehensive follow-up questions necessary to enhance the collection of subject-reported information as early as possible in the investigative process. Answers to the new and expanded questions represent information that would otherwise have to be obtained during a Subject Interview by an investigator and will result in shorter Subject Interview times for applicants with complicated personal histories.

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“Failure to provide truthful and candid answers during the security clearance process” is one of the most common reasons for the denial or revocation of security clearances.

Of the approximately 1,300 security clearance cases decided by Administrative Judges of the Defense Office of Hearings and Appeals (DOHA) during fiscal year 2008, Personal Conduct was the second most frequently cited issue and appeared in 497 (38%) of the cases. It was almost always cited due to applicants concealing information related to one of the other issues, such as criminal conduct, drug involvement, and alcohol consumption.

In recent years the misrepresentation of educational qualifications has gained increased importance in security clearance investigations and adjudication. Previously educational degrees were merely verified. Today the bona fides of questionable post-secondary schools are being scrutinized.

Unfortunately in many falsification cases, the information the applicant tried to conceal would not have resulted in a clearance denial…read more.

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In a September 15, 2009 written response to questions posed to the Director of the FBI following his March 25, 2009 appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee the following information was provided regarding FBI applicant clearance processing for fiscal year 2009 to date:

* Average processing time in days for fastest 90% of applicants.

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In the fiscal 2010 Defense appropriations bill a test program aims to set up a secure telework site in the D.C. metro area for federal employees who need to access classified networks. Nextgov reports that at least two sites in the D.C. area will be identified where they can test the efficacy of a secure teleworking location for government workers.

Teleworking is seen as a retention and recruitment tool to help deal with the latest BRAC round where DISA is being forced to move employees from Northern Virginia to Fort Meade. Approximately 70% of DISA employees live in Northern Virginia. More than 2,000 DISA employees already work remotely, but on unclassified work only.

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A CBS News article looks at what is required if you want to apply for a job with the City of Bozeman, Montana.

If you want the job you will need to hand over your usernames and passwords for “…any Internet-based chat rooms, social clubs or forums, to include, but not limited to: Facebook, Google, Yahoo, YouTube.com, MySpace, etc.”

“I think its indefensibly invasive and likely illegal as a violation of the First Amendment rights of job applicants,” said Kevin Bankston, an EFF attorney. “I don’t think the government can condition your application for employment on your giving up your First Amendment rights and your Fourth Amendment rights,” Bankston said.

However, some social networking sites flatly prohibit disclosure of passwords.  Facebook’s terms of service, say: “You will not share your password (or) let anyone else access your account.”

Update: City of Bozeman has decided it will no longer ask job applicants for social networking user names and passwords following a worldwide outrage to the hiring policy.

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A May 2009 report, The DHS Personnel Security Process, issued by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) stated that:

“Department of Homeland Security personnel security offices are performing similar functions but use different policies throughout the personnel security process. Across the department, components strive to provide quality results in a timely manner but often are delayed by applicants, overwhelmed by customer service requests, restricted by database functions, and limited by information availability.”

The report made 20 recommendations to improve the Department of Homeland Security’s personnel security process, including some recommendations to consolidate security functions. As of November 2008 DHS was phasing in the use of a new department-wide web-based system to manage investigations and clearances to replace the 9 separate systems used by component agencies. Currently about half the components of DHS have authority to conduct their own clearance investigations. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Custom Enforcement contract for background investigations with several private companies. US Coast Guard and DHS Headquarters use a mix of investigative services provided by contractors and the Office of Personnel Management. The Secret Service uses internal investigative resources.

The report also contained investigative and adjudicative elapse times by departmental components. For 2008 average investigative times ranged from 30 to 96 days and average adjudicative times ranged from 17 to 147 days.

Related Article: DHS to Streamline Security Clearance Process

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The Partnership for Public Service and American University’s Institute for the Study of Public Policy Implementation published their 2009 rankings of the best places to work in the federal government. The rankings were based on data from the biannual Federal Human Capital Survey administered by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and are posted at http://data.bestplacestowork.org/index.php/bptw/index.

Data was collected from 212,000 federal employees in 279 federal organizations and subcomponents, including 30 large agencies and 32 small agencies. Index scores for large organizations ranged from 80.7 to 52.2.

Among those listed as large agencies, the Nuclear Regulatory Agency ranked 1st overall for employee satisfaction and commitment. The US Intelligence Community, which was included in the rankings for the first time, ranked 4th. Surprisingly (or perhaps not) OPM, whose title implies expertise in creating employee satisfaction and commitment, ranked 20th. The Department of Homeland Security ranked 28th.

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On May 8, 2009 John Berry, the Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) jokingly told a senate subcommittee that his agency was sometimes referred to as the “Office of Personnel Recommendations.”  Berry made this comment at a hearing on the Federal Hiring Process Improvement Act of 2009 (S.736). OPM has no ability to force other federal agencies to comply with existing personnel rules, and no penalties exist for noncompliance.

Regardless of Berry’s stated intent to administratively implement the provisions of S736, the legislation is necessary for any substantive changes to the government’s cumbersome and slow hiring practices. S.736 seeks to:

• Require agencies to promptly notify applicants of their status at each major step of the selection process.
• Fill vacancies in an average of 80 days or less.
• Allow applicants to submit a cover letter, resume, and answers to brief questions, such as questions relating to United States citizenship and veterans status, to complete an application
• Improve job announcements
• Eliminate KSAs (Knowledge, Skills and Abilities) essays.

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A news story from WHNT NEWS in Huntsville, Alabama exposed how people in high positions in the military and missile defense have purchased their degree without spending all the time, energy and money – at a diploma mill, where no classes and no course work are necessary…just cash.

The story focuses on a defense contractor with security clearance and phony degrees.

What’s the harm?

“So here we have a contractor responsible for handling very sensitive information…The person is susceptible to pressure to blackmail to being told that he needs to provide some information or else they’re going to nail him. They’ll make him lose his job and this is a person in a position of great responsibility. It’s really, really frightening” says George Gollin, who worked with the federal government to prosecute diploma mills.

“Any corrupt individual would be harmful to the defense of the United States of America whether it would be this issue or other issues,” said Brigadier General David Grange.

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On 18 April 2008 the Department of Defense (DoD) announced that Question #21 regarding mental health on Standard Form 86 (Questionnaire for National Security Positions) had been changed. The announcement appears to make the change applicable to everyone (not just DoD personnel) applying for a federal security clearance. The change allows an applicant to answer “no” to the question regarding mental health counseling or treatment, if the counseling or treatment (including hospitalization) was not court-ordered and was for the following reasons:

• strictly marital, family, grief not related to violence by you, or
• strictly related to adjustments from service in a military combat environment.

A “yes” to the question, requires information regarding the dates of treatment, name and address of the health care professional(s) who provided the treatment.

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We’ve had a lot of threads here where people have briefly discussed how they obtained their clearance. Let’s make it official.. Tell us:

• When you received your clearance
• How long it took
• Which agency issued it
• Whether you received it as a contractor or Federal worker
• Any other interesting details

I’ll give my details below.

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