Vetting and Risks Associated to Online Behavior
Whether within the federal government or private industry, if an employee posts something offensive or displays they are associated with or performing acts that could be of concern or risk, HR or security professionals are often on the front line of protecting sensitive or classified information or an employer’s brand.
Advanced Onion (AO) recognizes that the Internet fogs the lines between personal and professional identities, by joining groups or friending work colleagues. This opens the window to see the political interests, hobbies, and “friends” affiliated with, drug use, and other personal revelations that would’ve remained private.
34% of employers have found content online that caused them to reprimand or fire an employee. Source: CareerBuilder.
AO assisted the DoD with the first architectural concept of the ContinuouS Evaluation (CE) Program and assisted in development of the current program of record, Mirador. Implementing CE is the newest effort of the the Federal Government to overhaul the security clearance processes and decrease investigation time. CE was mandated by Executive Order (E.O.) 13467and 5 U.S.C § 11001. CE automated record checks are the cornerstone of the broader Continuous Vetting framework being enabled by the Trusted Workforce initiative.
CE includes review of Publicly Available Electronic Information (PAEI) but does not yet include the scrutiny of social media. Under the broader vetting process, security personnel are authorized to collect publicly facing social media data during background investigations pursuant to SecEA Directive 5, “Collection, Use, and Retention of Publicly Available Social Media Information in Personnel Security Background Investigations and Adjudications.”