What Is A Single Scope Background Investigation

Military security clearances (too equally their civilian counterparts) crave a lengthy procedure of interviewing, researching, and background investigation. This procedure is a requirement in order to be approved for a Confidential, Secret, or Summit Secret clearance.

It would be piece of cake to assume that this is the beginning and final give-and-take on who is permitted to admission controlled data, data, hardware, or facilities, but it is not.

In improver to clearance procedures to handle, access, or otherwise access Confidential, Hole-and-corner, or Top Secret classified things there are besides checks done for those who are required to admission Sensitive Compartmented Information, or SCI.

These checks are part of the Single Telescopic Groundwork Investigation, or SSBI. This type of investigation, as you might gauge, is not done for all security clearances–only those that require admission to SCI.

What Is SSBI?

Single Scope Background Investigations (sometimes referred to as Tier 5 depending on the context and application of the investigation) are required for admission to SCI. This investigation does Not confer an boosted security clearance on the applicant; instead it is used to support Superlative Secret clearances and provides access to SCI upon successful completion of the investigation.

Those who have Top Secret clearances are non automatically granted access to SCI.

Only those with a specific need to access information technology are eligible to be investigated and cleared to practise so. When such access is awarded the classification may be referred to as Elevation Underground/SCI just there is no "4th clearance" here–merely an boosted designation for access to SCI.

Some confuse SSBI with SCI. The easy style to recall them properly is to go on in mind that Single Scope Groundwork Investigations are the process used to clear the applicant for access to Sensitive Compartmented Data.

What To Expect From A Single Telescopic Background Investigation

Those who are familiar with security clearance procedures already know that the vetting process can have a long time–and go dorsum in personal history for a long time, too.

You can look to accept the last decade of your life reviewed for "full general information" about your professional piece of work, your pedagogy, fifty-fifty your finances and associations. Yous tin await scrutiny over your personal information and relationships for roughly seven years.

Your background investigator will, in the grade of determining if you are to exist a successful applicant for a Top Secret Clearance likewise equally SCI admission, examine many of the following areas of your life, and more:

Date and location of your birth
Citizenship verification
Credit checks for information including financial issues, past residences, patterns of spending or debt, etc.
A database bank check of local-to-the-applicant constabulary enforcement records
A database check of national agencies including the FBI for derogatory information about the applicant
A check of your spouse, partner, or roommates "to determine allegiance, associations and other factors"
A review of any other public records that may evidence activities, proclivities, etc.
Review of schools and employers the bidder has associated with
Interviews with applicant-provided references

Even the virtually basic security clearance background checks encompass a wide range of personal details. Consider what is required on Standard Class 86, Questionnaire for a National Security Position–the applicant must list information about all of the post-obit (and more), to the best of their recollection:

Foreign contacts, activities, travel
Other names or aliases
Psychological and emotional health
Law Tape
Illegal use of drugs and drug activity
Employ of alcohol
Investigation and clearance record
Selective Service Record
Financial record
Military history
Utilize of information engineering science systems
Involvement in Non-Criminal courtroom actions
Relatives

Who Is Subject To An SSBI

The first matter to remember is that the employee or military member cannot initiate a background cheque or security clearance procedure–this volition be done through your supervisor, command back up staff, etc.

The applicant is required to comply with the investigation as a condition of employment or enlistment. Failure to cooperate with the investigation may not atomic number 82 immediately to task loss, only the inability to get or maintain a security clearance is a major problem for government service of any kind.

Those who need an SSBI are frequently informed by their supervisors that the need exists; this may be thanks to a chore transfer or permanent change of station motion to a new assignment that requires the access. It may besides be associated with military promotions, changes in staffing or mission requirements, and many other reasons.

Equally mentioned above, if you possess a Acme Secret clearance, yous don't automatically gain access to SCI–you must be vetted for this access.

Some find that promotions or PCS moves bring with them a change in requirements, such every bit the newly promoted Ground forces Staff Sergeant who is reassigned to a sensitive area. This person may accept carried a lower clearance before the reassignment only now has to go through the vetting process for the college clearance.

While SSBI and SCI are ofttimes associated with armed forces intelligence matters, many federal agencies including those in a non-military capacity (such as the Department of Energy) also accept requirements for security clearances and levels of clearance. Equally a military member you might not expect certain federal jobs to carry the same or like levels of rigor with respect to groundwork checks, only they practice.

A Word Well-nigh Polygraph Examinations

Some mistakenly believe that polygraphs or lie detector tests are required for SCI access. This is not true in all cases; not anybody being vetted for certain types of access will feel a polygraph examination. Simply some will exist administered this examination and you should not be surprised if you are expected to submit to i every bit a condition of clearance access.

Reinvestigations

The Top Secret/SCI classification is not permanent, nor is it indefinite. The intelligence community and background investigation field are both moving toward a philosophy and practise of "continuous vetting", but even this does non prevent a security clearance holder from needing to exist reinvestigated later on a period of time defined by the federal government.

Reinvestigations are too common if there is a lapse in belongings a clearance, if there was a dispute about the eligibility of the clearance holder, or their suitability to proceed holding the clearance.

Time Investment In The Background Cheque Process

Getting cleared for Height Surreptitious access that includes SCI is very time consuming but one fashion to speed up the procedure is to give the almost authentic and complete information yous can. Some people think that strategic omission of certain facts, incidents, associations, or other potentially negative information will be missed past the investigators.

But remember that investigators often have years of training and experience and recognize the patterns that show up when the applicant has omitted information that should have been shared with investigators.

Background checks are incredibly detailed and thorough; your investigator will uncover omitted information one mode or another whether via credit study checks, interviews with your associates, criminal or civil records, etc.

Joe Wallace is a 13-year veteran of the Usa Air Force and a former reporter for Air Force Television News