News

June 7, 2023

DCSA Announces 2023 Cogswell Award Recipients

The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) has recognized 19 facilities as recipients of the 2023 James S. Cogswell Outstanding Industrial Security Achievement Award. Chosen from nearly 12,500 cleared facilities in the United States, each facility has demonstrated industrial security excellence. To qualify, companies must establish

June 5, 2023

Phishing Attempt

DCSA has been made aware of a sophisticated malicious phishing email circulating which references the collection of an “SF-86_F” or an SF-86 (an example of the email is below).  Please do not engage with this email and advise your staff not to engage with it; you should report it to your security office or cyber security team and delete it

April 7, 2023

Redesigned website

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

DISS Release 13.17 updates CV reason codes

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

March 10, 2023

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

The DCSA Customer & Stakeholder Engagements (CSE) will be hosting the first ever Industry Background Investigations Stakeholder Group (Industry BISG) meeting on March 30th, 2023, from 10:30 AM to 12:00 PM (EST) and will continue a quarterly cadence of this group meeting for all Industry Facility Security Officers and Professionals. The March meeting will be held virtually via WebEx. Please click the title for more information.

Feb. 27, 2023

Updated sponsorship and facility clearance package submission procedures

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

Industry: Hold on Subject Management Actions in NBIS

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

Now Available: Org and User Management and Assignment Management Configurations webinar slides and recording

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.

Feb. 2, 2023

Renewal of DD 441, 441-1

In December 2022, the DD Form 441, Department of Defense Security Agreement, and DD Form 441-1, Appendage to Department of Defense Security Agreement, were renewed. Previously executed versions of this form do not need to be re-signed, but the updated version should be used going forward as of this date. The updated forms can be found here: DD Form 441 DD Form 441-1 Questions can be directed to your assigned Industrial Security Representative. Click the title for more information.

Jan. 31, 2023

Final FY 2024 Investigations Reimbursable Billing Rates now available

Federal Investigations Notice (FIN) 22-01, dated June 30, 2022, published DCSA’s initial, planned rates for Fiscal Year 2024.  By publishing the initial rates, it allowed DCSA customers to begin budgeting and planning their resource requirements for FY 2024.  Within FIN 22-01, it also noted that the final rates would be published in December 2022.  The final FY 2024 rates are now available and are posted in FIN 23-01, "Final FY 2024 Investigations Reimbursable Billing Rates," dated January 30, 2023. To develop the final FY 2024 rates, DCSA collaborated with the Security Clearance, Suitability/Fitness, and Credentialing community to evaluate policy, operational, and inflationary impacts on future personnel security costs since June 2022.  As a result of this thorough evaluation, followed by DoD Comptroller review and approval, DCSA lowered FY 2024 rates for tiered background investigation products by 18 percent and retained all other product and service rates published in FIN 22-01.  The 18 percent rate reduction is applied to new Trusted Workforce 2.0 tiered BI products as well as legacy tiered BI products in the event legacy products are still necessary for customers to order in FY 2024. You can find FIN 23-01 here. Please click the title for more information.