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.

Security Clearance Denial

Financial considerations continue to be the top issue in the denial of eligibility for a security clearance. I have noticed a few recent appeals to the Defense Office of Hearing and Appeals (DOHA) where clearance applicants are using the President’s decision to hold student loan payments in abeyance as an excuse when submitting their

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Security Clearance Denial

Usually, security clearance applicants who are denied eligibility for access to classified information have one or two disqualifying factors that cannot be mitigated. Well, a recent Department of Energy (DOE) contractor takes the cake, hitting over half of the thirteen national security adjudicative guidelines. Here are the highlights from his appeal to

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Security Clearance Process

The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) has published a request for information (RFI) solicitation for contractors who can develop a tool that will automatically sort through social media and other public websites to create a searchable database of posts, items of interest, relationships and interactions that can be used in insider

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Security Clearance Process

Industrial Security Letters (ISLs) are issued by the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency to inform cleared contractors, government contracting activities, and DoD components of developments relating to the National Industrial Security Program. The contents of these letters are for information and clarification of existing policy and requirements. DCSA published ISL 2021-02 on

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