FIS vs NBIB: Has Anything Changed?
Six weeks have passed since the “grand opening” of the new National Background Investigations Bureau that took over from OPM’s Federal Investigative Services, but not a whole lot has changed on the surface except for the new name. In fact, when you compare OPM’s old FIS website to the new NBIB website, it is quite apparent that not a lot of progress has occurred in the transition thus far. I mean, how hard is it to update and transfer the information from the old to the new site so that you have a one-stop shop for everything you need to know about background investigations?
In related news, warnings have surfaced about a new phishing attack that targets OPM security breach victims in order to try to trick them into opening the files in an email purportedly sent to from OPM. If successful, they can then hold your computer files hostage until you agree to pay the ransom through an untraceable exchange using Bitcoin in exchange for the encryption key necessary to unlock your files. Curiously enough, OPM/NBIB itself has not sent out any updated notifications or warnings about this new threat, perhaps wisely trying to stay under the radar while they are in transition.
Although not really clear due to the lack of information coming from the new bureau, it seems like the game plan for many of initiatives that ODNI and OPM rolled out in September has fallen off track. Hopefully the NBIB starts the New Year in a higher gear and starts to crank out the backlog of investigations that continues to frustrate industry, investigators and applicants.
Somebody told me that the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) will give DoD the authority/responsibility to conduct its own personnel security investigations, but I have not seen any mention of this in news articles about the NDAA. I thought he might be confused with the provision that DoD will provide a secure information system for the NBIB to use, but this guy says that basically they are bringing back the days when DoD did its own investigations.
Have you seen anything about this?
No the Senate just passed the proposed 2017 NDAA and the only provision in there wbout security clearance process was this:
(Sec. 215) Requires DOD, in consultation with the Directors of National Intelligence and the Office of Personnel Management to: (1) develop and implement a new security clearance information technology architecture; and (2) issue guidance establishing the respective roles, responsibilities, and obligations of the Secretary and directors with respect to the development and implementation of the system.
DISS, the system that will replace JPAS, is coming on line with an anticipated go-live date sometime in March 2017.
I didn’t think they would go as far as to reconstitute DoD doing its own PSI work especially since they just came to this agreement about NBIB. Not that we cannot rule out such a move in the future.