The personnel vetting process is a major drag on the government's hiring ambitions. It can often leave candidates confused and in the dark, even before they start the lengthy background investigation process. So what if the government focused more on the "candidate experience," similar to the ever increasing focus on "customer experience" at many agencies? A new RAND report (link below) takes an extensive look at that question and offers some interesting recommendations. I spoke with Dave Stebbins, a political scientist at RAND and one of the lead authors on the report.Report link: https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA1990-1.html Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In a June 30 memo, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin directed Pentagon officials to take a range of actions to tighten access to classified information. The directive stems from a review of security procedures Austin ordered earlier this spring in reaction to the Discord leaks, allegedly by 21-year-old Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira. What do these new actions mean for security clearance applicants and holders? To dive more into that question, Inside the IC spoke with Dan Meyer, a security clearance attorney at Tully Rinckey. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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For this episode, I speak with Henry Sokolski, executive director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, about NPEC's influential paper, "Over-classification: How Bad Is It, What’s the Fix?" The over-classification of national security information has been a long simmering issue in Washington policy circles. But that debate was cast into the spotlight after 21-year-old Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira was arrested in April for allegedly leaking reams of highly sensitive documents on the Internet. In May, members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence introduced legislation aimed at reining in over-classification.NPEC's paper published earlier this spring - two years in the making, and released weeks before Teixeira's arrest - has a wealth of information and examples of over-classification challenges, as well as recommendations for addressing them. So can Washington come together to address its secrets obsession? "Part of me is optimistic, part of me is, I wouldn't say cynical, but skeptical," Sokolski said. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A new Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency project is looking to use psychology to thwart would-be hackers. Many cyber attacks these days use basic human psychology to get people to click on a link, for example, as part of a "phishing" exploit. But IARPA thinks it can flip that paradigm on its head and embed the "cognitive biases" of hackers into network defenses. For an overview of the effort, I spoke with Dr. Kimberly Ferguson-Walter, the program manager for IARPA's Reimagining Security with Cyberpsychology-Informed Network Defenses (ReSCIND) program. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Defense Intelligence Agency is in the early stages of making major upgrades to the federal government's top-secret network, the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communication System (JWICS). DIA's "customers" - other federal agencies and military units -- increasingly want high-bandwidth, low latency digital services to be a part of JWICS. So DIA will be "expanding the highway" of JWICS by embedding cloud computing and other modern technologies into the top-secret network. For the latest, I spoke with Johanna “Jojo” Leasiolagi, senior technical advisor for DIA. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency's "Tearline" project is a unique "open source" endeavor in the intelligence community. And its efforts aren't going unnoticed: Tearline recently won the inaugural "OSINT Unit of the Year" award from the OSINT Foundation. I spoke with Chris Rasmussen, the Tearline's founder and program manager, about the project's origins, what it's been up to lately, and its future as a potential OSINT trailblazer for the U.S. government. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Compensation for individuals with security clearances increased by 7% in 2022. More than half of all cleared workers now make six figures, according to ClearanceJobs' annual Security Clearance Compensation Report. I spoke with ClearanceJobs President Evan Lesser and Senior Editor Jill Hamilton about the latest report, which also shows an uptick in remote and hybrid work opportunities for cleared talent. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The National Security Agency's Cybersecurity Collaboration Center opened nearly two years ago to help the defense industrial base and other critical organizations better secure their networks. The organization works with a couple hundred of companies today, and it wants to scale that to "thousands" this year, according to Kristina Walter, chief of DIB defense at the center, my guest for this week's episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Defense Intelligence Agency is in charge of maintaining the federal government's top-secret network. That global system is on the cusp of a major overhaul. I spoke with DIA Chief Information Officer Doug Cossa about his agency's plans to modernize the IT network and how the intelligence community needs to adapt, in many ways, to modern technological realities.Highlights include:0:40: JWICS modernization17:27: The role of cloud computing for JWICS and DIA22:30: Risks in global telecom standards and opportunities for wireless tech in the IC29:45: Desktop-as-a-service and telework34:55: Artificial intelligence and machine learning Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices