[Infowarrior] - USG to automate security clearance reviews

[Richard Forno]

This should be....interesting to watch develop.  -rf


Government to automate security clearance reviews
By STEPHEN LOSEY
May 01, 2008
http://federaltimes.com/index.php?S=3507324

Bush administration officials want to have a plan in place to automate most
aspects of the security clearance process by the time a new administration
arrives.

The plan, announced today, calls for a system that will accept online
clearance applications, perform automated records checks, approve or deny
some clearances using automated tools, and use automation to find red flags
in applicants¹ background files and better target where field investigators
focus their attention, Clay Johnson, deputy director for management at the
Office of Management and Budget, said today.

But details on how and when this new system will be in place ‹ and how much
it will cost ‹ is still unknown. Johnson said he and other officials at the
White House, the Office of Personnel Management, Defense Department and the
Office of the Director of National Intelligence will release a series of
reports this year with more information.

Johnson said a big part of the plan is that computers will be regularly
checking government and commercial databases to review relevant criminal,
financial and other records of people who hold security clearances. Data on
people holding top secret clearances will be reviewed every year and people
holding secret clearances will be reviewed every five years. Top secret
reinvestigations are now conducted every five years and secret
reinvestigations are conducted about every 10 years.

Johnson said he hopes the new system will enable field investigators to
spend their time investigating only those leads that have not been resolved
through automation. Investigators now investigate all aspects of an
applicant¹s background, which Johnson said is inefficient.

³We¹ve been making determinations the same way for 50 years, and it¹s time
to change the way we do it,² Johnson said.