Author Archive

Marko Hakamaa

Marko Hakamaa served in various military police positions with the United States Army worldwide for 22 years before retiring in 2006 as a Master Sergeant. Afterwards, he transitioned into the civilian workforce as a contractor background investigator for the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) before entering civil service as a Security Specialist in 2009.

Background Investigations

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It seems every day we hear a new story about some company or government agency getting hacked by unknown perpetrators who steal sensitive identity or financial information. Think…….Yahoo, LinkedIn, Oracle, Target, State Department, Office of Personnel Management, and the Internal Revenue Service just to name a few. As a result,

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Security Clearance Denial

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Those in the military forfeit many personal freedoms that the rest of the civilian population take for granted. Following rules, regulations, and the orders of those appointed over you are an essential part of military discipline and order. All enlistees take  an oath of enlistment which states  “I, (name of

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Background Investigations

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  We are less than two weeks away from OPM’s self-imposed deadline for the NBIB to take over the federal background investigation process and there was a vacuum of any detailed information about how it was going to operate. Finally, as noted in an article posted on Federal News Radio

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Background Investigations

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OPM has finally moved forward in implementing the Tier 5 background investigation product to replace the Single Scope Background Investigation (SSBI). ODNI and OPM had collaborated on developing the new standards back in 2012 in order to provide quality control and consistency on investigations for Top Secret clearances. The change

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