Security Executive Blog

Facility Security Officers (FSO) should coordinate an annual self-inspection to ensure their organizations are equipped to conduct and capable of conducting continuous protection of classified information. A great tool FSOs or designated inspecting officers can use for preparing, conducting and documenting the self-inspection is DSS’ The Self-Inspection Handbook for NISP Contractors. The handbook identifies “Elements of Inspection” that are common to ALL cleared companies participating in the NISP. The five elements that pertain to ALL cleared defense contractors are: (A) Facility Security Clearance (FCL) (B) Access Authorizations (C) Security Education, (D) FOCI (E) Classification This section covering Classification will consist of multiple parts. Keep reading future newsletters and posts for the rest of the story. Part I First off, cleared defense contractor employees do not perform classification. That’s the government’s job. Classification is conducted by the Original Classifica...

Try these NISPOM based questions. This study may help you prepare for the ISP Certification or the DoD's SPeD certification. These answers aren't in the NISPOM. Can you answer them anyway? 1. What are the appropriate steps to take in JPAS when a cleared employee no longer needs a clearance but will not leave the company? a. Debrief from access, out process b. Debrief from access, separate from JPAS c. Separate from JPAS, out process d. Out process only e. Separate from JPAS only 2. Applicants will be required to change initial golden question to _____ unique golden questions. a. 2 b. 3 c. 6 d. 4 e. 5 3. You must include information about all of the following EXCEPT on the SF86. a. Parents b. Cousins c. Brothers d. Sisters e. Spouses 4. When must fingerprints be...

As published in clearancejobs.com Recently, a reader asked the following question: “If I have a current secret clearance, does that fulfill the requirements of the “public trust” clearance?” Before we answer the question, let’s look at public trust as a whole. THE SHORT ANSWER It depends. The security clearance process is part of the Public Trust evaluation. According to Standard Form (SF) 86 and SF 85 instructions and DSS publications some public trust positions require security clearances and some do not. So, the answer depends on the level of the public trust required. If a desired public trust requirement is for a low to moderate risk position or requires a clearance of SECRET or CONFIDENTIAL, then yes, the request for the SECRET clearance (SF 86) adjudication should cover the requirements and the applicant should not have to complete a new SF 85 or 85P. If the public trust position requires a higher security clearance, then the applicant would undergo another investigation and a...