The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) – which performs most of the Federal government’s security vetting tasks – is looking to expand the process of continuous vetting across the Federal government later this year while also exploring the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies into that process.
The continuous vetting process aims to regularly review a cleared individual’s background to ensure they continue to meet security clearance requirements, and involves automated record checks that pull data from criminal, terrorism, and financial databases, as well as public records.
Mark Pekrul, deputy assistant director for customer and stakeholder engagement at DCSA, discussed the planned expansion of continuous vetting during an April 23 webinar hosted by Federal News Network (FNN).
“There is a vast number … of Federal employees in public trust positions, people that don’t perform national security duties or have access to classified information, but nevertheless might have access to” personally identifiable information (PII) and other data for which “we also want to ensure a high level of trust,” Pekrul said.
“We’re looking at doing a soft launch of continuous vetting for an initial cadre or initial batch of those individuals [in] late 2024, and then maybe opening the aperture on that more into 2025,” he said.
Pekrul also said the agency has been scoping out AI technologies that it might wrap into its vetting processes.
“We have been assessing and piloting some of the clear, practical, and tangible uses that AI offers and supporting DCSA’s delivery of a trusted workforce, as well as protection to the Defense Industrial Base and supply chains,” he said.
“AI will have very real security applications for DCSA, from serving as a tool to improve quality and timeliness and processing background investigations, security clearance adjudications, and issuing industrial facility clearances, to identifying risk factors for insider threat incidents and potential assistance to DCSA personnel,” Pekrul said.
