Directive Establishing DIS in 1972 links to DSS and DCSA 50th Anniversary of Service Supporting National Security

Photo By Christopher Gillis | DCSA Official Press Release  

UNITED STATES

09.30.2022

Story by John Joyce 

Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency

The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) is celebrating two anniversaries in October 2022 thanks to a Secretary of Defense memorandum issued 50 years ago.

The memorandum signed by Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird established the Defense Investigative Service (DIS), which became operational on Oct. 1, 1972. DOD Directive 5105.42 designated DIS as a separate operating agency under the direction of the Secretary of Defense.

That 1972 DOD directive — authorizing a workforce of 1,750 military personnel and 1,250 government civilians to conduct all DOD personnel security investigations – has retained its unbroken authority over the course of 50 years as DIS was renamed the Defense Security Service (DSS) in 1999 and eventually consolidated with other organizations and renamed DCSA in 2019.

Hence, the agency celebrates 50 years of service while recognizing its third anniversary as DCSA – three years of transformation and consolidation with many other organizations, personnel, missions and resources.

After a half century, the agency not only retains the same charter in its evolution from DIS to DSS to DCSA, it is still responsible to the nation as its Gatekeeper for personnel security and vetting.

The founding DOD directive, also known as the “Charter for the Defense Investigative Service,” defined the DIS mission: “To provide DOD components and other U.S. government activities, when authorized by the Secretary of Defense, with a single centrally directed personnel security investigative service.”

Similar to today’s DCSA personnel security mission encompassing security clearance investigations for military, government and cleared industry, DIS performed routine security clearance investigations for defense contractor personnel, as overseen by the Defense Industrial Security Clearance Office headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, at the time.

“DIS personnel who perform the investigative functions of the agency are known as special agents. Most are officers or noncommissioned officers of the various services,” according to an article entitled, Defense Investigative Service Organized, published in the Dec. 14, 1972 edition of DOD’s Commanders Digest. “Some are DOD civilian employees. Except for a few who occupy certain supervisory positions, military ranks or grades are not disclosed. The military investigators wear civilian clothes. Most of the investigating staff, military and civilian, have had investigative experience with the federal government or other investigative or law enforcement agencies.”

The article reported that DIS agents do not engage in law enforcement, explaining that “counterintelligence and criminal investigations will continue to be performed by the Army, Navy and Air Force” with DIS activities confined to the conduct of DOD personnel security investigations.

Such investigations include national and local agency checks and other investigative inquiries to determine the suitability of military and civilian affiliates of DOD for access to sensitive information. Investigative inquiries also involved the resolution of allegations such as the existence of criminal records, subversive affiliations and hostage situations.

In 1977, DIS was assigned the additional mission of law enforcement in detecting fraud, waste and abuse within DOD. In 1981, this mission was transferred to the Inspector General of DOD and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service was formed under that office. DIS retained some law enforcement responsibilities concerning the unauthorized release of government information.

A decade after its founding, DIS Director Thomas O’Brien wrote about the development, progress and impact of the agency on national security in an article published in an American Society for Industrial Security magazine called Security Management.

“Gradually, over the ensuing ten-and-a-half years, DIS evolved into the complete security organization it is today. Its current mission not only includes personnel security investigations, but two other major functions as well,” O’Brien pointed out in the May 1983 edition of the publication. “DIS conducts certain law enforcement investigations as directed by the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, relating primarily to the investigation of unauthorized disclosure of classified information, more commonly referred to as leaks. DIS is also responsible for the three major programs involving industrial security: the Defense Industrial Security Program (DISP); the Industrial Facilities Protection Program, and the DOD Program for Safeguarding Arms, Ammunition and Explosives (AA&E) in the custody of DOD contractors.”

Those three programs mentioned above – the DISP, the Key Asset Protection Program, and the AA&E Security Program – in addition to the Facility Clearance Program, were transferred from the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) to DIS on Oct. 1, 1980.

The DISP established and maintained uniform standards for the handling and protection of classified information accessible to private industry. The Industrial Facility Protection Program developed and promoted physical security measures at certain key industrial facilities. The AA&E Program inspected contractors with possession or custody of sensitive conventional arms, ammunitions and explosives. The Facility Clearance Program processed and controlled industrial facilities’ clearances.

By the end of 1984, the DIS workforce transformed to an entirely civilian population as military personnel gradually returned to their respective services.

Despite the escalating workload during these years, DIS sought to improve upon its contribution to national security by introducing new processes and programs. In 1981, DIS implemented a new type of background investigation – the first major change in the conduct of personnel security investigations since World War II. The most striking innovation in the new investigation was the inclusion of an interview of the “subject,” which consistently led to the development of more significant information and gained widespread recognition throughout DOD.

In 1983, DIS launched a substantial program whereby periodic investigations were conducted on personnel with access to top secret information in addition to investigating those who had access to special compartmented information (SCI). This new and aggressive program was designed to detect cleared personnel who may no longer be reliable or trustworthy while deterring those who might otherwise become traitors.

For almost four decades, periodic reinvestigations continued for all secret and top secret security clearance holders in DOD, government and industry until DCSA’s implementation of the Trusted Workforce (TW) and Continuous Vetting programs. TW 2.0 is a whole-of-government background investigation reform effort that is transforming the personnel vetting process by establishing a government-wide system enhancing security and allowing reciprocity across organizations.

DCSA announced on Oct. 1, 2021, that it successfully enrolled all DOD clearance holders in the Continuous Vetting Program. Now, more than four million DOD and government personnel are no longer required to submit a periodic reinvestigation to the DCSA Consolidated Adjudication Services every five or 10 years – a requirement that often involved extensive interviews with background investigators. Instead, their records are checked continuously, which enhances the trustworthiness of the federal workforce and helps them maintain positions of trust across DOD.

Security training has been an important element of DCSA since the 1970s. The Department of Defense Security Institute was established in 1972 under the control of DLA. Through a series of transfers of DOD security training mission areas, the DSS Academy was created and the DSS director was named the functional manager for DOD Security Training in December 2007. In 2010, the Center for Development of Security Excellence was established. In 2019 when DCSA was formed, the National Training Center in Slippery Rock, Pa., became part of the agency. The National Training Center – a Federal Law Enforcement Training Accreditation accredited academy – provides training for DCSA background investigators, quality reviewers and suitability adjudicators. Moreover, the National Center for Credibility Assessment – joining DCSA on Oct. 1, 2020 – conducts credibility assessment, training and education, research and development, technical support, and oversight activities for federal polygraph and credibility assessment mission partners.

In May 1993, DIS established a counterintelligence (CI) office in response to dramatic changes taking place in the defense marketplace and the need for current and relevant intelligence-threat data by the DIS workforce and industrial managers. In addition to being a valuable resource for sharing CI experience and knowledge with the DIS workforce through training, policy development and operational support, the CI office enabled the identification and communication of threat data to industry.

In the same year, Executive Order 12829 replaced the DISP with the National Industrial Security Program (NISP). DIS immediately drafted the National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual (NISPOM), replacing the nearly 45-year old Industrial Security Manual to provide relevant information on oversight of the NISP.

The 32 Code of Federal Regulations Part 117, known as the NISPOM Rule, replaced the NISPOM 28 years later. This NISPOM federal rule – effective since Feb. 24, 2021 – implemented policy, assigned responsibilities, established requirements and provided procedures consistent with Executive Order 12829.

The agency applied myriad technological enhancements by the end of the Cold War and the emergence of the Information Age. New and emerging technology created new threats and challenges for the agency throughout its transition from DIS to DSS to DCSA. Technology also revolutionized the agency’s business processes, security products and services.

For example, DSS deployed the Case Control Management System (CCMS) on Oct. 28, 1998 to serve the agency’s customers with a timely and more cost-effective way of managing personnel security investigations while providing associated products to our customers.

While it was in use, CCMS interfaced with the Electronic Personnel Security Questionnaire (EPSQ), which significantly decreased customer input and DSS processing time. EPSQ software replaced the paper format, eliminating the necessity for individuals to fill out as many as four personal history forms. This information was saved electronically for the individual’s future use, eliminating the need to repeat information previously provided. A reduction in overall investigative processing time was a major benefit of the EPSQ. Fewer investigative packets were returned to the requestor for inaccuracy and because the EPSQ was automated, mail time was no longer a factor in the investigative processing time.

The technological revolution continues at DCSA. Today, the National Background Investigation Services (NBIS) is the technological capability that will enable continuous vetting within Trusted Workforce 2.0. NBIS is a secure end to end information technology infrastructure for comprehensive personnel vetting for the U.S. Government—from subject initiation, background investigations, adjudication, continuous vetting, and transfer of clearances. Mandated by Congress for enhanced cybersecurity posture, data protection, and to replace multiple disparate legacy systems, NBIS will transform the personnel vetting process to deliver improved security, more customizable solutions, faster processing, and increased efficiency while also enhancing user experience.

New and emerging technologies coupled with the agency’s tradition of process improvements, cost avoidance and doing more with less also continues. DCSA’s customers are benefitting from improved background investigation products as the nation’s legacy personnel vetting process is modernized and transformed. The agency’s streamlined pricing structure reduced fiscal year 2021 and 2022 costs of personnel vetting products and services while costs for fiscal year 2023 will keep steady with fiscal year 2022 pricing.

“DCSA is helping our customers by reducing their costs while standardizing pricing to support predictability and enhance stability in annual and long-range customer agency budgeting,” said DCSA Director William K. Lietzau. “Our efforts to reform our pricing processes while implementing major change to enterprise-wide personnel vetting is paying off in cost savings for customers across government.”

Over the course of five decades, the agency has evolved in response to the ongoing revolution in computing, information sharing, communication technologies and the internet that changed the nation, government, DOD and industry. As DCSA continues its transformation, it will work to proactively and positively impact national security with the most effective, timely, highest quality and technologically advanced personnel vetting, background investigations, adjudications, counterintelligence, counter insider threat, industrial security, and educational products and services on behalf of its DOD, government and industry stakeholders.

• Date Taken: 09.30.2022
• Date Posted: 09.30.2022 08:20
• Story ID: 430454
• Location: US