security clearance | The Contracting Education Academy

July 30, 2018 By AMK

GSA contractors working without completed security clearances

The recent revelation that the Government Services Agency (GSA) Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) permitted employees of a government contractor to work without a completed basic National Agency Check with Written Inquiries (NACI) clearance brings into question the entire process.

The inappropriateness of allowing contract personnel to perform duties prior to their being cleared to do so is troublesome.

The fact that FAS allowed several workers to slip through the system, including at least one instance which occurred after they had received an admonishment to take corrective action, makes one scratch their head.

The GSA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) was direct in their admonishment:

“We found that FAS has not ensured that contract employees receive favorable background investigation determinations before providing them with access to sensitive government information, systems, and facilities.”

The OIG continued that allowing contract employees to work without the completed determinations put both FAS and its customers at risk.

Keep reading this article at: https://news.clearancejobs.com/2018/07/07/gsa-contractors-working-without-completed-security-clearances/

June 25, 2018 By AMK

Can a new DISA app help solve the security clearance dilemma?

The federal government faces a substantial security clearance backlog, so the Defense Information Systems Agency has announced a potential solution.

An electronic application, eApp, will be used to submit background security clearance investigation forms. The application debuted at the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association Defensive Cyber Operations Symposium in Baltimore in May.

DISA’s eApp is designed to replace and improve upon the current portal for security clearance check processing, called e-QIP.

Using eApp, the subject of the investigation will enter the initial information. DISA said that eApp’s interface will improve user experience through “reworked navigation” and it will include requirements grouped into 10 sections and a section counter to track application progress.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.c4isrnet.com/disa/2018/06/15/can-a-new-disa-app-help-solve-the-security-clearance-dilemma/

May 16, 2018 By AMK

Agency that vets Pentagon contractors’ security isn’t keeping up with the threat, audit finds

The Pentagon agency responsible for vetting contractors that handle classified information isn’t keeping up with the threat, according to an auditor’s report released Monday.

The Defense Security Service, or DSS, is responsible for vetting the security of over 12,000 contractor facilities, but could only accomplish about 60 percent of its workload during the 2016 fiscal year, according to the Government Accountability Office report.

That’s despite DSS’ own statement “that the United States is facing the most significant foreign intelligence threat it has ever encountered,” the report states.

DSS security reviews are broadly similar to the personal security clearances that government employees and contractors undergo and include issues such as a company’s foreign ties and risky past behavior.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2018/05/agency-vets-pentagon-contractors-security-isnt-keeping-threat-audit-finds/148201/

December 4, 2017 By AMK

The ‘huge’ hole in the government’s Russian software ban

The Trump administration’s order barring certain Russian software from government networks doesn’t fully cover one troubling vulnerability — the teeming ranks of government contractors.

That omission could leave open gateways for hackers looking to pilfer government secrets, cybersecurity specialists warn, something that has reportedly happened in recent years with contractors from the CIA and the NSA. But legal experts say the government has only limited ability to require contractors to uproot Kaspersky Lab’s products from their computers.

“It’s a huge area of risk, especially with some of the recent breaches at the NSA and the CIA where it was clear that these contractors were the source of it,” said Trevor Rudolph, the former head of an OMB team that helps agencies improve their cyber defenses.

Matt Keller, who advises government clients on digital security programs as a vice president at GuidePoint, dubbed the issue a “moderate to high risk” for federal agencies.

It’s impossible to quantify the risk exactly, but hundreds of thousands of federal contractors hold top secret clearances.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/24/the-huge-hole-in-the-governments-russian-software-ban-259473

November 16, 2015 By AMK

Tech contractors pay $12 million to settle claims they failed to screen staff

Two technology contractors have agreed to pay the U.S. government over $12 million in total to settle a civil court case alleging they allowed employees to work on a Defense Department contract without security clearance.

Services firms NetCracker Technology and CSC will pay $11.4 million and $1.35 million, respectively, according to a Department of Justice release .

It reveals that the two were accused of contravening the False Claims Act by using staff who had not gone through required vetting procedures to work on a Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) contract.

CSC was the prime contractor on the project to provide software to manage the Defense Department telecoms network between 2008 and 2013.

However, during that time, NetCracker is alleged to have knowingly used employees without security clearance, resulting in CSC “recklessly” submitting false claims for payment to DISA, the notice claimed.

A Washington Post report went further, claiming that some of the code written for the project was developed by Russian programmers and subsequently placed onto U.S. government computer networks with no testing for backdoors or other possibly malicious elements.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/tech-contractors-pay-12m-claims/

The recent revelation that the Government Services Agency (GSA) Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) permitted employees of a government contractor to work without a completed basic National Agency Check with Written Inquiries (NACI) clearance brings into question the entire process.

The federal government faces a substantial security clearance backlog, so the Defense Information Systems Agency has announced a potential solution.

The Pentagon agency responsible for vetting contractors that handle classified information isn’t keeping up with the threat, according to an auditor’s report released Monday.

The Trump administration’s order barring certain Russian software from government networks doesn’t fully cover one troubling vulnerability — the teeming ranks of government contractors.

Two technology contractors have agreed to pay the U.S. government over $12 million in total to settle a civil court case alleging they allowed employees to work on a Defense Department contract without security clearance.

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