DCSA Customer & Stakeholder Engagements (CSE) to host Industry Background Investigations Stakeholder Group

April 7, 2023 - The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) is redesigning its public website, with an expected launch during the last week of April. The redesigned website enhances the users’ digital experience with increased functionality and navigation capability to DCSA content and services. Once the website is launched, users are encouraged to visit the site and check their existing bookmarks, as some pages bookmarked on the legacy site may no longer be accessible.

March 27, 2023 - Defense Information System for Security (DISS) release 13.17 includes an update to the Continuous Vetting (CV) reason codes on the user interface and reports. Records that had "Other" or "Deferred" will now be reflected as "Enrolled." Within the Joint Verification System (JVS) User Interface (UI), users will see CV enrollment statuses of Enrolled, Unenrolled and No Records Found. The corresponding date associated with the Enrolled or Unenrolled will also be visible. No Records Found indicates the individual is not enrolled in CV. Reports in JVS and CATS will display CV Status (e.g. Enrolled, Unenrolled, or Never Enrolled) and date. In reports, Never Enrolled is the status for No Records Found. If you have any questions, please contact dcsa.ncr.dcsa-dvd.mbx.askvroc@mail.mil

Feb. 27, 2023 - Effective March 1, 2023, DCSA is implementing updated procedures for facility clearance (FCL) sponsorship and FCL package submissions to reduce the cycle, or re-work, between government contracting activities (GCAs) or contractors and DCSA. These changes are one of a number of initiatives DCSA is undertaking, internally and externally, to streamline the FCL process, which will ensure the fullest degree of transparency practicable during the sponsorship and FCL package processes. DCSA encourages the full utilization of available resources from DCSA by sponsors or the sponsored contractors to ensure complete and accurate packages are submitted to facilitate DCSA's efficient and thorough evaluation of each case. The reworking of packages submitted to DCSA adds significant time to case reviews and contributes to the aging of package submissions in queue. These increases in time across the FCL process severely impede the ability of GCAs to receive the goods or services required to execute their missions in a timely manner, the profitability of contractors, and the risk to national security. The cycle for sponsorship packages is, on average, 1.93 times per package with a 53% rejection rate. That number increases to 2.5 times for initial/upgrade FCL packages with a 70% rejection rate. DCSA is committed to reducing both rates, cycle and rejection, to or near 1.1 and 15%. For more details regarding sponsorship and FCL submission procedures, click the title.

Feb. 24, 2023 - As Industry works through the onboarding and configuration processes in the National Background Investigation Services (NBIS) system, the DCSA NBIS Industry Onboarding Team would like to remind users to refrain from taking any subject management actions in NBIS, to include creating a subject’s profile or initiating cases, until notification is provided that these actions can begin. DCSA is planning to migrate all subject information from the Defense Information System for Security (DISS) to NBIS at a later date (to be announced). Creating subjects prior to the migration effort could potentially create issues once migration from DISS to NBIS takes place, for instance, duplicate subject information. Until the migration takes place, organizations should concentrate their efforts on enrolling into NBIS and conducting the necessary validating and configuring actions to prepare for system functionality, the first of which will be case initiation. At this time, organizations should continue to use DISS for Case Initiation, Investigation Status, Visit Management, Subject Management, Eligibility Determinations, Incident Reporting, Access Management, Foreign Travel, etc. For other questions regarding the NBIS Industry Onboarding Process, please email the NBIS Industry Onboarding Team at the following mailbox: dcsa.meade.nbis.mbx.nbis-industry-onboarding-team@mail.mil. Click the title for more information.

Feb. 17, 2023 - For any National Background Investigation Services Industry Users that were not able to attend or would like to refresh or review, recordings and slide decks from the live Org and User Management and Assignment Management Configurations webinars that took place in December 2022/January 2023 are now available on the NBIS Training Site: https://nbistraining.countermeasures.com/.  Once logged into the site, navigate to the "Industry Onboarding Resources" section and click "View Materials" to access the aforementioned webinar resources as well as other available webinar recordings. Be aware that the recordings and slides have not yet migrated to the Security Training, Education, and Professional Portal (STEPP) and ServiceNow.  In the interim, Industry users will want to access these on the NBIS Training Site. Note: Internal DOD users may not be able to access the Industry page on the NBIS Training Site due to firewall limitations. If you have questions, please email the NBIS Industry Onboarding Team at the NBIS Industry Onboarding Team mailbox: dcsa.meade.nbis.mbx.nbis-industry-onboarding-team@mail.mil.