Recently I was searching the internet for books about security clearances. I was surprised to see so many new books on this subject. At Amazon® I found that 22 new titles with publication dates of March 2022 or later. This was particularly unexpected because only nine books about security clearances appeared on Amazon during the 15 years prior to March 2022.*
Digging a little deeper, I noticed that other than a book I wrote, none of the newer books had any information about their authors. There were no sample pages available on 17 of the books. All of the older books have sample pages accessible through Amazon’s “Read sample” (formerly “Look inside!”) feature. Almost all of the older books also display information about their authors either on the Amazon book page, on the sample pages, or on a separate Amazon author webpage.
Other than my book, there were four newer books with sample pages, but the first five sample pages of those four books were identical. Here’s an example of two sentences from one of the sample pages that appear in all four books:
Those who share the discernment that regular citizens ought not be ready to get to grouped data should be positive about the real administration included. As a matter of fact, the public authority decides the grouping level, and after consented to arrangements, gives the expected ordered data to the workers for hire.
Two of these four books shared the same title and the other two shared a different title, but all of them had different authors. All four were published on either 21 or 22 March 2022 and had exactly the same book descriptions. The first sentence of each book description reads:
An exceptional status is a status conceded to people permitting them admittance to arranged data (state or authoritative insider facts) or limited regions, after consummation of exhaustive record verification.
I’ve been involved in federal personnel security clearances for over 50 years, and none of this makes any sense to me. I started to wonder whether the newer books were created using Artificial Intelligence. I also wondered whether they were produced by the same person.
Looking closer at their Amazon book pages, I started to see similarities in many of the books. Sixteen books had page counts of 129 to 132, were only available as a trade paperback, and had list prices of $12.95. When you clicked on the “Read sample” button on their Amazon book page, 13 of these books displayed a page with “Funny helpful tips,” but no other content. There were two “Funny helpful tips” listed in each book and the tips were totally unrelated to security clearances, for example:
Diversify revenue streams; it provides stability during market fluctuations.
None of the tips were funny or helpful. Two of the books had covers with images of clothing store mannequins wearing orange T-shirts with the word “SALE” in large white letters across the chest. Printed over that was the title of the book and the name of the author. I don’t know what idea the author/publisher was trying convey with that image. Perhaps the intent was to stop a browsing customer long enough to consider its incongruity.
Curiously, the names of seven of the authors were written with a period placed before their middle initial rather than after their middle initial, which suggests they all used a computer program with the same glitch in it. I noticed that many of the titles to these books contained the words: “master,” “mastering,” “mastery,” “unlock,” “unlocking,” “navigating,” and “roadmap.” Most of the titles were very long with equally long subtitles.
I confess I’ve never used Artificial Intelligence to write anything, and I’ve never previously read anything that was written using AI. I can only guess that 21 of the 22 books that became available at Amazon since 2022 were written entirely (without any editing) using AI by people with no actual federal security clearance knowledge or experience. I didn’t recognize any of the authors’ names as people who have previously written about security clearances.
Interestingly, my search for books on information security and physical security at Amazon didn’t turn up any obviously “fake” books.
I bought a Kindle™ edition of one of the recent security clearance books, and it gave me a headache trying to read it. Much of what I read was gibberish. I can only describe it as having been written by someone who knows English poorly as a second language and uses strange terminology (e.g., grouped data, arranged data, ordered data, leeway, exceptional status level conceded, etc.), because they have absolutely no knowledge of security clearance jargon. The book is totally useless as a resource for anyone wanting information about federal personnel security clearances. If the quality and content of this book is at all indicative of the other 20 books, book buyers will have to exercise caution when purchasing a book on security clearances. With all the hype about AI and how it’s being used to produce written works capable of satisfying academic requirements, I was expecting something much better than what I encountered.
Federal personnel security clearance policies, procedures, and standards have been undergoing significant changes during the past few years. More changes have been approved and are in the pipeline for implementation. Federal agencies have been doing a better job than they have in the past of communicating changes to clearance policy and standards, but they don’t explain how those changes will affect an applicant’s clearance eligibility. A 2022 Rand Corporation study “found that government sources [of information] were comprehensive but more difficult to understand versus nongovernment sources.” It also, “found evidence that online information is anecdotal, is sometimes incomplete, and tends to focus on risk factors for clearance applicants.” Clearance applicants need clearly written, accurate, reliable, current information on security clearances. It’s a shame they can no longer rely on book sellers to fill that need.
* The first book on federal personnel security clearances may have been Elizabeth Newman’s 1998, Security Clearance Law and Procedure. Later editions of this book were published in 2008, 2014, 2018, and 2021. All editions were printed and marketed by Dewey Publications. In December 2000 the Defense Personnel Security Research Center issued a 344 page report written by Sheldon I. Cohen, titled: Security Clearances and the Protection of National Security Information: Law and Procedures. Both Newman’s book and Cohen’s report were written primarily for lawyers and personnel security practitioners. The first book to appear on Amazon.com about security clearances and written for clearance applicants was Security Clearance Manual by William Henderson in June 2007.
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