Security Clearances in the Hot Seat – New GAO Report Lays Out Progress, Opportunity – SCI Episode 7

The Government Accountability Office provides – you guessed it – accountability across a variety of federal programs. When a program lands on the GAO’s high risk list that means it is pa rticularly vulnerable and in need of transformation. Since 2018, the personnel security program has been on the GAO’s high-risk list – and it’s not the first time personnel security has been there. Progress has been made over the past several years, including reducing the backlog from a high of 725,000 pending cases, and reducing cleara nce processing times, but more progress needs to be made – particularly in the area of IT security and evaluation of current initiatives, such as Continuous Evaluation. Brian Mazanec, director of GAO’s defense capabilities and management team, discusses the GAO’s most recent update on the personnel security program – areas of progress and areas of opportunity. 

On the second half of the program, security clearance attorney Sean Bigley and ClearanceJobs.com’s Lindy Kyzer talk what NOT to say to your security clearance background investigator – if you really want to get or keep that security clearance.