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 Process

With all of the process changes regarding background investigations implemented by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and the Defense Security Service (DSS), one would think the backlog numbers would start shrinking. Yet based on the recent report from the National Background Investigation Bureau

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Obtaining Security Clearance

A DoD contractor was denied eligibility for a security clearance by the DoD CAF due to concerns about her extensive history of marijuana use, falsification of her security questionnaire, and a number of delinquent student loans. The Statement of Reasons (SOR) identifying the concerns alleged the following: –          Eight delinquent student

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Security Clearance Process

In the continuing security clearance reform saga, the Senate Intelligence Committee is working on coming to an agreement on the final version of a bill first introduced in last March that is aimed at reducing the background investigation backlog. The previous version of the bill stalled in the senate during

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Security Clearance Process

The National Background Investigations Bureau (NBIB) reported the number of new security clearance applications has risen to almost 500,000 over the past four years. This increase, combined with the current investigation backlog, does not bode well for companies who rely on a pool of cleared employees to work on classified projects.

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