Security Executive Blog

This month the Office of  Director of National Intelligence  announced that a person's social media pages can be reviewed during the security clearance investigation process. You might remember that in an earlier article we had covered this possibility, explaining some of the red flags that could occur in social media content.  In the previous article, we discussed activities such as: pictures of partying, un-vetted non-US person friends or contacts, or other social media activity that could lead to questioning allegiance, decision making capability, or risky behavior could cause concern during an investigation. New Opportunities for Investigators Let's look at some other possibilities that could arise as a result of the new policy. In this new policy, the investigator could be forearmed with more information about the subject in a more timely manner. The social media pre-investigation research could provide a more aggressive investigation capability. The i...

Social media is a great way to stay connected. Before social media, when the world was so big, we relied on letters and phone calls. These were time consuming endeavors to keep each other informed. If I went on a trip to Europe, I might be back stateside before friends and family ever receive my postcards. Now that we have social media, the world has shrunken significantly and it only takes moments to share information. And, we do that willingly. As we go forward with the topic of security clearances and social media, let’s leave the more direct investigation process behind for a moment and discuss the continuous evaluation, the Defense Security Services annual review, or other less direct, but just as impacting ways social media can effect a cleared employee’s security clearance. The continuous evaluation process is in place to ensure a cleared employee remains eligible for their clearance. Just think about how this system has been challenged as ineffective. Both military, gove...

Can social media posts impact your security clearance? It’s great to have family reunions or go out with friends and take pictures of events and the good times. We all want our friends to know how well we are doing and maybe we want to make some co-workers jealous while on vacation. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter make it possible to post your fun immediately. Social media is a great invention and used for good, can be a rather fun way to keep up with others and allow them to keep up with you. However, such opportunities also provide epic fail situations where the poster gets in trouble at home and at work. You may have read where school students have been suspended, military personnel have been punished and employees fired for events captured on social media. Some irresponsible postings have had reputation ruining consequences based upon perception as in the case of DeSean Jackson missing practice while posting vacation photos. Even though he had probably preplanned the event, foo...