It's Official: The Pentagon Now Runs the Security Clearance Process

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2019/10/pentagon-has-officially-taken-over-security-clearance-process/160315/

By Jack Corrigan
Staff Correspondent
NextGov
October 2, 2019

The Office of Personnel Management on Tuesday handed off its National 
Background Investigations Bureau to the Defense Department, leaving the 
Pentagon in charge of conducting the vast majority of government’s security 
clearance investigations.

At midnight, NBIB officially ceased to exist, and its operations and more than 
2,900 employees were subsumed by the Defense Counterintelligence and Security 
Agency. The agency, formerly known as the Defense Security Service, is now 
charged with adjudicating roughly 95% of the background investigations for the 
federal government.

DCSA also will be responsible for ensuring the Pentagon and its contractors 
don’t allow compromised technology to enter their IT ecosystems. Federal 
officials have grown increasingly wary of efforts by China and other 
adversaries to infiltrate the government through its IT supply chain, though 
even when threats arise, the Pentagon has historically been slow to act.

”This merger advances national defense strategy objectives to enhance our 
security environment and maintain lethality by protecting critical defense 
information from theft or disclosure,” Joseph Kernan, undersecretary of defense 
for intelligence, said in a statement.

[...]

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