What's your 'Inside Threat Score?' It Could Determine If You Keep Your Clearance

Your eligibility to perform secret government work could one day be decided by a number that looks like a credit score, and factors in your social media activities. According to the head of the new US security clearance agency, the idea is to regularly vet individuals with access to classified information on their likelihood to go rogue, as one would be rated on their likelihood to default on a loan. The envisioned "Fair Isaac-like score” (commonly known as a FICO score) for trustworthiness "is the future" of security clearance screening, said Jim Onusko, transition director for the new National Background Investigation Bureau.

The number also would reflect a shift away from checking up on intelligence and military staff every half-decade, as is current practice, to "continuous evaluation" through periodic searches of, for example, court records, mortgage transactions, and -- if authorized -- social media posts. Onusko and other federal personnel security officials spoke April 28 at an Intelligence and National Security Alliance symposium in Chantilly (VA). "This truly becomes a capacity issue," he said. "We've got to develop the electronic means" to collect indicators of an employee's reliability.