What is the state of security today? Personnel security has changed significantly over the past several years, with new terms and new processes. Next month security professionals from across the country will gather at the annual NCMS conference. It’s the first time the group has gathered in-person in two years, and government officials and private sector representatives alike will gather for three days of training on all of those emerging security issues and opportunities.
ClearanceJobs recently explored the state of the security field in a survey of facility security officers and security professionals across government and industry. Professionals revealed their headaches, pain points, and where they go to for the best guidance on security topics.
Download the State of the Facility Security Officer.
While slow security clearance processing times are often seen as an applicant issue, security officers report slow clearance processing is also their biggest pain point in the clearance process, followed by reciprocity and then eQIP. While security clearance processing times have improved significantly, the process still involves hurdles – one of the key ones being the lack of predictability in the process. If you’re unfortunate enough to be one of the individuals who fall in the slowest 10% of applications, your processing times could be significantly worse than the average – that’s bad news for companies who need employees to start today, and certainly bad news for the security officers expected to execute the clearances necessary to get work done.
As far as security officer headaches, Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) is the biggest pain point for security officers today. That’s largely due to the fact that CUI guidance still hasn’t been released to industry. Some offices are beginning to roll out guidance and training on the bones of what CUI implementation will look like is out there -but as CUI rolls out, it’s creating more headaches for security officers and more issues.
Common Questions from Clearance Applicants
Security officers are on the front lines of employee and applicant questions about the clearance process. And when it comes to what is generating the most questions from applicants today, self-reporting topped the list. That is likely due to the updated Security Executive Agent Directive 3, which outlined new self reporting requirements for clearance holders and went into affect just a year ago.
The Good News Is
Security officers are meeting with the c-suite, with 70% saying they regularly meet with their company’s senior leadership, and 40% reporting they do so weekly. Security officers also cited a variety of resources helping them navigate the many challenges and changes in personnel security today, from DCSA and government representatives to professional organizations like NCMS and NSI.
There’s still time – register for the NCMS Conference in Minneapolis, MN June 21-23.
