By Spring, Government Aims to Halve 600, 000 Security Clearance Backlog

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

https://www.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/2018/10/spring-government-aims-halve-600000-security-clearance-backlog/152439/

By Heather Kuldell
Managing Editor
Nextgov
October 30, 2018

Over the last two months, the government reduced its massive security 
clearance backlog to 600,000 and expects to cut that load in half by 
spring, a top intelligence official said.

The government's antiquated security clearance process -- which vets the 
background of government, military and contractor personnel -- has long 
been criticized as a choke-point for hiring and a reason the government 
can't tap top talent.

"This constant problem had literally got to a crisis stage," Senate 
Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said Tuesday 
at a security clearance event hosted by George Mason University's National 
Security Institute. "When we're talking about backlogs that are 
740,000-plus and we're thinking about young agents potentially joining the 
CIA waiting two years before they're cleared or folks in the private 
sector waiting in limbo for huge periods of time simply moving from one 
contract to another within in DHS for example, we got a problem."

Part of the problem is a process that looks largely like it did decades 
ago, with government agents going in person to verify college transcripts 
and criminal histories. It also doesn’t take into account the changing 
nature of work as employees don't usually stay at one company for 30 years 
like in previous generations, he said.

[...]

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