New US 'Secret' Clearance Unit Hires Firm Linked To 2014 Hacks (reuters.com) 23
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: A U.S. government bureau set up to do "secret" and "top secret" security clearance investigations has turned for help to a private company whose login credentials were used in hack attacks that looted the personal data of 22 million current and former federal employees, U.S. officials said on Friday. Their confirmation of the hiring of KeyPoint Government Solutions by the new National Background Investigations Bureau (NBIB) comes just days ahead of the bureau's official opening, scheduled for next week. Its creation was spurred, in part, by the same hacks of the Office of Personnel Management that have been linked to the credentials of KeyPoint, one of four companies hired by the bureau. The officials asked not to be named when discussing sensitive information. A spokesman for OPM said the agency in the past has said in public statements and in congressional testimony that a KeyPoint contractor's stolen credentials were used by hackers to gain access to government personnel and security investigations records in two major OPM computer breaches. Both breaches occurred in 2014, but were not discovered until April 2015, according to investigators. One U.S. official familiar with the hiring of KeyPoint said personnel records were hacked in 2014 from KeyPoint and, at some point, its login credentials were stolen. But no evidence proves, the official said, that the KeyPoint credentials used by the OPM hackers were stolen in the 2014 KeyPoint hack. OPM officials said on Thursday one aim for NBIB is to reduce processing time for "top secret" clearances to 80 days from 170 days and for "secret" clearances to 40 days from 120 days.
I'm confused (Score:4, Funny)
did they just spin up a new government branch because of the OPM leak and said new branch just contracted with the same company responsible for the OPM breach?
Yo dawg, I heard you liked government in your breaches, so I added government to your government breaches.
Re: (Score:2)
Say the CIA needs a cleared flight crew with loading experience to help re "supply" some pro US "freedom fighters" to remove a bad dictator and install a new US backed theocracy.
Asking for the decryption keys, been logged for the search and having a record of the crew found to fly a CIA mission is not the quick result needed.
So keep the entire database of serving staff and still cleared skilled staff in plain text and have no logging is t
those crazy Russians (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
the kick backs are so nice now show you face before you get the horse
Unnamed officials (Score:1)
The officials asked not to be named when discussing sensitive information.
No problem, we'll figure out their identities when KeyPoint gets hacked again.
Re: (Score:2)
Why wait for all that?
Just look at who the top execs at KGS donated/bundled campaign/PAC/lobby/'Foundation' money to/for.
Easy-peasy!
Strat
Wouldn't it be ironic if... (Score:2)
...their first task was to evaluate Hillary for security clearance.
What actually happens if you get elected as POTUS but can't qualify for Top Secret security clearance?
Re: (Score:3)
Nothing. You're automatically cleared as soon as you take office. (Actually you start getting intel briefings as soon as you're nominated.)
Although no one's imagined first act as President is to pardon herself... [lawnewz.com]
Re: (Score:2)
No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United States.
Re: (Score:1)
Elected officials in the U.S. aren't evaluated for security clearance, they are granted access to the information by virtue of being in the position. More info here [clearancejobs.com] and here [cia.gov].
The government really screws things up (Score:2)
But to turn into a total fuck up requires the private sector. See also http://www.wsj.com/articles/ep... [wsj.com]
Well In Their Defence (Score:2)