continuous vetting

As the Trump administration prepares to dramatically ramp up its continuous evaluation capabilities in the coming years, industry is asking for access to some of the data collected from cleared contractors. That information, industry says, will better inform their own insider threat programs.

Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner (D-Va.) has asked the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Office of Personnel Management to accelerate a planned initiative designed to overhaul the security clearance system.

Agencies have a specific goal now from Congress to move security clearance holders from periodic reinvestigations to continuous vetting programs. The goal is just one of several provisions aimed at modernizing the security clearance process that lawmakers included in the 2020 defense policy bill.

In anticipation of several new policy directives in the coming months, the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency is planning to dramatically ramp up continuous evaluation enrollment to 3.6 million in 2020, defense officials said.

The president is expected to sign a new national security presidential memorandum that will begin a series of modernization efforts of the governmentwide suitability, credentialing and security clearance system.

The defense and intelligence communities are pivoting from the term “continuous evaluation” to a concept of “continuous vetting,” which the Defense Department and Office of the Director of National Intelligence said will shift the way they monitor and establish trust with federal employees and contractors.