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.

Adjudication

It is common practice for courts to allow individuals who are charged with a felony or serious misdemeanor offense to plea bargain down to a lesser offense just to keep the justice system moving and to avoid long drawn-out trials. For example, someone gets arrested for aggravated assault with intent

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Career Advice

The National Security Agency (NSA) is in the middle of hiring 3,000 new employees, the largest growth in the NSA’s history. Why? Because of a combination of factors. First, their workforce is aging and many of their employees are looking at retiring in the next one to five years. Second,

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Obtaining Security Clearance

For some, life events happen, they get down on their luck, and they eventually fall into the hole financially. Adjudicators and appeals judges are fully aware of this and take these factors into consideration when determining whether to grant clearance eligibility. You don’t need to pay all of the debt

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Security Clearance Process

In the personnel and industrial security world there are many words and acronyms used that clearance applicants may not be familiar with which may be confusing. Previously, I provided an article on what the Report of Investigation codes meant. Here are some terms used by security professionals who process, review, or adjudicate

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