Security Clearance Jobs Blog

IMPACT 2011 took place in Chantilly, Va. this week and while the event was off-the-record, it’s worth reporting the hot topics discussed in this gathering of security officers and experts. With hundreds of Facility Security Officers and Information System Security Officers in attendance the forum was a hot venue for information sharing and discussion of the current security landscape. The trends you’ll note in the agenda aren’t surprising, and spotlight the evolving digital landscape today’s security professionals face. Here are the highlights:

• Cybersecurity. Unless you’ve been living under a rock in the past several years it’s probably no surprise that cybersecurity is a watch word across the intelligence and security industries. Whether you adhere to the Defense Department argument of cyberspace as a warfighting domain, or are with the State Department camp looking to broaden Internet access in order to promote democracy, wars of the future will be waged along the Internet superhighway. Government and private industry are looking for cybersecurity professionals with the necessary skills to compete in this growing market.
• The mission matters. Security is a customer focused profession (and you thought it was all about defending networks and hunting down Russian spies….). Security experts have an important goal in keeping their communities safe, and the human component of any security position – even within the IT industry – is a powerful one. Several presentations focused on briefing skills and the importance of training and education. That’s certainly a trend we see with training and education related positions posted at ClearanceJobs.com.
• Progress has been made in the security clearance process…but it’s far from over. Representatives from the Defense Security Service (DSS), the Defense Office of Hearings and Appeals (DOHA) and others highlighted the improvements made in efficiency and reciprocity, but were cautious not to toot their own horns too loudly. They acknowledged that more steps need to be taken to make the process clearer and easier for both applicants and the security officers with companies and within the government who facilitate applications.

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The MilitaryTimes Edge recently published a great article on security clearance jobs.  Yes, we were mentioned and the Director of ClearanceJobs, Evan Lesser, was interviewed;  so there is a bit of self promotion here.    Honestly, though, it is a very thorough, informative article on security clearance jobs.  A very good read.  Here’s an excerpt.

Engineers and IT specialists are in top demand, but clearance jobs run the gamut. Any position that’s needed in a big corporation — from the board room to the mail room — may require clearance.

“People think about security clearance jobs and the first thing they think about is espionage, people doing covert work,” said Evan Lesser, director of the job-search Web site ClearanceJobs.com. But he once placed a highly cleared individual in the White House kitchen. That’s “Yankee White” status: Cleared to serve the president.

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Secretary Gates said the “freedom of communication and the nature of it is a huge strategic asset for the United States…there are clearly a number of governments, around the world, that try to control these communications…but these governments “can’t draw the net tight enough to stop everything”…

However, the DOD also warns against the dark side of social networking as well. The problem is not so much people twittering away secrets as letting slip many smaller pieces of information that an adversary can piece together.

Where’s the middle ground? What precautions do you take?

Update:  Just today, a Washington Post article points out that even the super-secret National Security Agency is on Facebook.  Not only the NSA, but the CIA, FBI, and DIA.

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Per this new article on Wired, the CIA is using its relationship with In-Q-Tel to buy into a company called Visible Technologies. Visible Technologies is a software company that specializes in monitoring the social web, including Twitter, blogs, Facebook, YouTube, and others.

In-Q-Tel says it wants Visible to keep track of foreign social media, and give spooks “early-warning detection on how issues are playing internationally,” spokesperson Donald Tighe tells Danger Room.

Good idea? We think so. The ability to communicate quickly via social networks is no doubt an attractive prospect to terrorists. By compiling data, seeing trends, and possibly getting early warnings, the U.S. intelligence community is smart to jump into this game early.

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A Washington Post article on June 24, 2009 reported the planned establishment of a Department of Defense (DoD) Cyber-Defense Command by October 2009 with full operational capability by October 2010. The Cyber-Defense Command’s mission will be to defend military networks, but will assist federal civilian networks.

But a July 22, 2009 Associated Press article reported that a private study found “severe shortages of computer specialists in the federal government. Of concern is the potential threat to national security from increasing coordinated cyberattacks. In the article Ron Sanders, chief human capital officer for the national intelligence director’s office, acknowledged that the intelligence community has more flexibility and resources to attract computer specialists but said there is still an overall shortfall of U.S. citizens with the needed expertise who can also meet security clearance requirements. DoD claims more than 90,000 cybersecurity workers; other federal agencies are estimated to have a total of 35,000 to 45,000 personnel. The private study, Cyber IN-Security: Strengthening the Federal Cybersecurity Workforce, “which details serious problems within the professional community charged with protecting the government’s computer networks against attacks, was produced by the Partnership for Public Service and Booz Allen Hamilton.

Related articles: U.S. CyberSecurity Initiative Puts Focus on IT Security Skills, Cyberspace Policy Review, Cyber Threat Posed by North Korea and China to South Korea and US Forces Korea

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A FCW.com article on the 4 Feb 09 has confirmed that SRA International‘s computer network was infected by a virus, which may have exposed a number of federal employees’ personal information.

“The breached information could include names, addresses, dates of birth, health information and Social Security numbers. Personal company computers with data from questionnaires related to employees security positions may have been exposed to unauthorized access too, according to SRA’s notification letter.”

Hackers may have also been able to access the data SRA collects in its security position questionnaires, the company said. SRA doesn’t know if any data has been compromised but is taking the precaution of notifying customers that their data may have been accessed…

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