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

The Office of Personnel Management’s National Background Investigation Bureau (NBIB) conducts background investigations for low risk non-sensitive, public trust, and national security positions for both civil servants and contractors working on behalf of the government. Some of the items on the Tier 1 through Tier 3 investigations may require completion

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Security Clearance Process

In June the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) jointly issued a memorandum implementing interim measures to help reduce the investigation backlog for DoD. This memorandum instructs the Defense Security Service (DSS) to defer submission of Tier 3 (T3R) and Tier

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Security Clearance Denial

In the contractor industrial security world Facility Security Officers (FSO) are the primary interface between the U.S. Government and companies that are given access to classified information. As such, an FSO’s integrity and trustworthiness should be above reproach – and when faced with ethical dilemmas, they should act first and

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Security Clearance Denial

I ran across a recent Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Hearings and Appeals case that made me scratch my head and ask “What the heck was she thinking?’ This one involved a DOE contractor who was completing a master’s degree program related to her job that was paid for

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