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.

Obtaining Security Clearance

As of today, 25 states have legalized medical marijuana while four states—Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational pot. With the coming elections there could be as many as 14 additional states added to the list. What does this mean for the potential security clearance applicant or current

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Polygraph

Starting next year the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) will require all contractors who conduct sensitive compartmented information work to pass a counterintelligence-scope polygraph. The DIA Director of Security, Michael Londregan, issued the notice last week notifying its workforce that they will begin a phased implementation in January 2017. Ominously, the

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Obtaining Security ClearanceSecurity Clearance Denial

Of the 881 security clearance appeals heard by the Defense Office of Hearing and Appeals this year, the overwhelming majority of denials involve financial issues. Most of the cases are pretty cut and dry because the applicant failed to take steps to mitigate the security concerns. Let’s take a look

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Adjudication

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As all clearance’s holder’s should know from their initial security briefing, before engaging in outside employment you need to get approval from your security officer or federal agency before starting to ensure the activity is deemed suitable and there is no conflict of interest with what you do regarding your

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