Security clearance topics remain in the news – but who are Special Security Officers (SSOs), and what role do they play in keeping classified programs safe? ClearanceJobs is joined by Mitch Lawrence, founder of Lawrence Solutions, and Peter Lapp, owner of PJ Lapp Consulting, to discuss their upcoming Special Security Officer Survival Course, why the role of SSO is important, and why it’s critical for both government and industry to invest in the professionalization and advancement of the SSO.
They offer a variety of tips for better understanding the role of SSO, from how it got its start in the Oppenheimer era, to why it remains a critical function today. Behind every cleared or classified program is a need for competent security professionals. With ongoing insider threats, data breaches, and an expanding catalog of counterintelligence issues affecting every company, big and small, investing in the people of security has perhaps never been more important.
Lindy Kyzer (00:30):
Security training is definitely something that’s getting a lot of news interest. Training programs are nothing new, but definitely something that came out of the Department of Defense 45-day review following the Jake Teixeira breach, was to some extent around the security piece of it. I think the scrutiny over the security clearance reform process, for better or worse, is never over. But in that vein, I’m really excited to have two definitely experts in this process. Folks who know the security clearance, the vetting process, the counterintelligence piece of it, backwards, sideways, all of the ways. So across the personnel security counterintelligence space, and that’s what I really love. Sometimes we kind of put personnel security in one bucket, but when it comes to risk reduction, risk management, there’s a lot that goes into it.
(01:20):
So we have Mitch Lawrence, he is with Lawrence Solutions, does a lot of really work in this space. Works a ton with the government, has a, has a robust government background, also partners a lot with industry. Also, Peter Lapp. He is the founder of PJ Lap Consulting, a retired government agent in this space. He has a book coming up that definitely folks should check out. I’m here to have them talk about a sliver of a piece of their expertise. So we’ll definitely have to have them back to talk about other topics around this. But something that we, again, teased to before – the training piece of the security process. Again, we know annual security training. We know that security officers actually have their own training requirements. Can I have you guys kind of talk about what is a Special Security Officer? What do they do within a company, and why is this a demographic that you’re kind of focusing on with the new training program that you guys are doing together?
Mitch Lawrence (02:25):
So, thanks, Lindy. This is Mitch Lawrence. And, and of course, I’ve gotta plug our new course that Pete and I are doing together under the Lawrence Solutions banner. Go to https://lawrence-solutions.com/. And when you get to the landing page, you’ll see course registrations right there.
(03:11):
Back to your great question Lindy. The whole training piece and why we’ve developed this is that, for whether funding reasons or other different government reasons, they’ve kind of pulled back on some of the training that they’ve been doing. And by the way, Pete and and I are two of the government’s instructors, and, and we just acknowledge that to try to help the government if they’ve got to reduce the number of trainings that hey, there’s an opportunity to step up and help the government and, and our fellow security professional colleagues as well in order to provide this training.
(03:58):
And, and a big difference is that we’ve decided to take it back to in-person since COVID 19 it’s been virtual, and both Pete and I, as instructors, it’s, it’s a whole different ball of wax and trying to lead and teach folks virtually as compared to in-person.
Lindy Kyzer (04:49):
Yeah. So kind of walk me through the SSO survival course. So what does that training actually entail? So you mentioned the government piece of it is just focusing on government personnel at that point. Sounds like there’s an application also for the private sector side of it, you know, what’s involved, who’s eligible, why should they be doing that training?
Peter Lapp (06:11):
The training and education process for security officers – most of these folks are brand new to the position or have less than 2, 3, 4 years. And where do they go to get good quality training on how to do their job? I mean, hopefully they have a mentor or two in their organization. There aren’t a plethora of training opportunities for security officers working in government or in clear defense industry to get good quality training. And I think we’ve provided that with this fulsome, around the world type training that gives them the tools that will directly help them do their job. And I think that’s what’s super important to what we’re trying to message. You know, the threats of the world aren’t going away, and therefore your typical SSO is going to know the name to share, but perhaps won’t know the mechanics of how that impacts them and how they could be, you know, kind of these ambassadors to insider threat programs that should be looking for the next to share.
Mitch Lawrence (07:11):
And, and the advantage of the in person is, is by far greater, because we have that ability to network. So we’ll have 25 to 30 students in a class. And it gives you an opportunity to meet and discuss over a four and a half day class period, and to get to know people that you may know for the rest of your career. And Pete and I have been teaching virtual for the last almost two years.
Lindy Kyzer (08:23):
I love that. And I think a course like that, I think the ability to bring in outside expertise or different folks that, that come in with different perspectives is so important. And even the training part of it, the fact that you have government and industry training together, I think is always a huge advantage. So I, I mean, it sounds like a disadvantage to me that the government is cutting that out of their side of it. And so hopefully this kind of helps to fill that gap and getting those two groups together. I think every time we do that, we see it being a net value for both sides of the equation to get folks in the same room. So, you talked about it a little bit already, but I want to kind of expand on it a little bit more because, you know, professionalizing the security workforce, definitely a passion point of mine. Mentoring, better career mapping is big. I get asked that all the time across the security workforce, Hey, I’m a FSO now, what does that look like in terms of career progression? How does the training fit into that professionalizing the role of the SSO and kind of the career mapping piece of what you’re doing?
Mitch Lawrence (09:16):
Yeah, I, I share your passion on that. In fact, I can go back, I think, uh, nearly 20 years now when I originally made the statement to security professional colleagues, and, and that was, ‘Hey, until we have a coffee table book, so to speak, we’re, we’re, we’re not a profession, okay?’ Because architects have that, lawyers have that, everybody else seems to have that coffee table book, so to speak. One of the ways to do that is to elevate certain aspects of the security profession that we try to do and demonstrate in the course the things like the pathway to yes, try getting away from the Cold War mentality of ‘just say no’ and risk aversion.
(11:35):
And then you’re going see that that progression to professionalization where they want you to be part of the C-suite, if you will. That’s what we’ve seen in the cybersecurity world.
Peter Lapp (12:20):
In terms of that professionalism one of the things I’ve, that I thought that Mitch did a fantastic job in developing this course is talking about the history of the position and knowing we were talking about this off camera, you know, talking about the movie Oppenheimer and how the security officer was a critical role in the Manhattan Project. Having that legacy education, talking to today’s SSOs about where their position came from. Every time Mitch teaches it, I just listen and learn new things because I think it’s so interesting to know the history of where this position came from and how critically important it has been in the course of the government post World War II and through World War II, I just think is a fascinating history lesson, but also cements how important these positions are, and therefore, how important it’s to get good quality training for today’s generation and tomorrow’s generation of security officers.
