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Commentary on Personnel Vetting and Secrecy

RAND researchers with expertise in national security and personnel issues contribute commentary to media outlets, offering their perspectives on how the U.S. government can improve and modernize the security clearance and vetting process, recruit and retain cleared talent including new generations for a trusted workforce, and ensure its national security secrets are protected.

Security Clearance Myth Busting
RAND researcher Sina Beaghley joined a panel during ClearanceJobs Connect 2024 to discuss how misinformation about security clearances can deter good candidates.
Oct 25, 2024
Talented Young Tech Workers Should Be Hired by Uncle Sam
With tech giants tightening their belts, this year's computer science graduates are facing a job market that's lost some of its luster. This presents an unprecedented opportunity for the federal government to level up its tech workforce.
Jun 20, 2024
Trust But Verify: The Security Clearance Process and Experience
A moderated panel discussion explored actions the U.S. government can take to ensure that the security clearance process is better understood and that the experience is fair and equitable from a candidate perspective, so it can continue to grow its talent base to meet its national security needs.
Mar 15, 2024
Hybrid Work Is Here to Stay. It's Time for Security to Catch Up to Our New Normal
As hybrid work becomes the new normal, workplace practices—security-focused and otherwise—may need to reconsider whether physical presence necessarily improves either security or work outcomes.
May 2, 2023
Preventing Intelligence Leaks: Let's Start Over
The United States badly needs a new secrecy paradigm to protect classified information, and one that also improves government transparency. Our archaic system for keeping classified information secure is terminally flawed, and no amount of triage tinkering can hope to fix it.
May 3, 2023
Intelligence Work Is Exciting. And Traumatizing
The intelligence community needs to communicate to its workforce about the varied forms of trauma, how it affects individuals, and what resources exist to help. Protecting the intelligence workforce can help protect us all.
Nov 30, 2022
A Snowden Pardon Could Have a Snowball Effect on Protecting National Security Secrets
If President Trump were to pardon Edward Snowden, then he might encourage vigilante behavior that puts at risk the very sensitive information and operations—meaning American interests and lives—that the U.S. national security system is intended to protect.
Sep 4, 2020
Overdue Overhaul: Security Clearance Reform in a Decade of Leakers, Spies, and Insider Threats
With the legislative and executive branches seemingly on the same page regarding the need for changes to the security clearance and vetting system, long overdue reform appears to be within reach.
Apr 15, 2019
What Is the Adversary Likely to Do with the Clearance Records for 20 Million Americans?
The state actor that hacked the Office of Personnel Management could use the stolen information to further its domestic control against dissidents, enhance its foreign intelligence, and improve its position in the global military and economic order.
Jan 20, 2017
Defining a New Paradigm for Government Secrecy
Technology has afforded the U.S. national security apparatus incredible capabilities, along with equally monumental challenges and risks. The government has the option to choose whether to adjust by taking a proactive approach or to allow external forces to determine the future of its secrets.
Oct 13, 2015