Author Archive

Marko Hakamaa

Marko Hakamaa served in various military police positions with the United States Army worldwide for 22 years before retiring in 2006 as a Master Sergeant. Afterwards, he transitioned into the civilian workforce as a contractor background investigator for the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) before entering civil service as a Security Specialist in 2009.

Security Clearance Process

When you see the word “cosmic” the first thing that usually comes to mind would be something to do with outer space, right? In the security clearance world Cosmic Top Secret is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) equivalent for a U.S. Top Secret security clearance or classified information. The

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Security Clearance Process

In an effort to ensure the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) security clearance vetting process for political appointees remains based on established national security adjudicative guidelines and is not abused by executive power, House representatives introduced legislation called the Security Clearance Review Act. If passed, it would require political appointees to

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Adjudication

With the announcement by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) that as a part of the Trusted Workforce 2.0 initiative, all Non-Sensitive Public Trust (NS-PT) employees and contractors will be enrolled in Continuous Vetting (CV), the workload for personnel security folks reviewing the alerts

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Obtaining Security Clearance

Most cases that result in a security clearance denial under the financial considerations involve delinquent debt or taxes. But concerns under financial considerations can also be caused by an unexplained influx of money. Once such case recently popped up in an appeal to the Defense Office of Hearing and Appeals. Here are

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