In a new white paper, INSA calls for the Intelligence Community (IC) security apparatus to review its assumptions around clearing U.S. citizens with foreign ties in order to attract and retain a world class IC workforce. Developed by INSA’s Security Policy Reform Council, the paper, Promoting Cultural Diversity in the ...
Thought Leadership
White Papers

New Paper Calls for Improving Security Clearance Mobility
Arlington, VA (June 2, 2022)–According to a new INSA white paper, Improving Security Clearance Mobility: How to Save Time and Resources and Improve Mission Outcomes (pdf), delays in processing the movement of cleared personnel from one government agency to another undermine the efficiency of more than 150,000 cleared c ...

New Paper Addresses Bias and Insider Threat Programs
ARLINGTON, VA (Jan. 13, 2022)—The Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA) today released a new white paper, Strategies for Addressing Bias in Insider Threat Programs, that can help insider threat and security managers identify and mitigate biases that undermine the effectiveness of insider threat (InT) programs ...

Designating Space Systems as New U.S. Critical Infrastructure Sector
ARLINGTON, VA (Nov. 2, 2021)—In a white paper released today, the Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA) calls for the formal designation of U.S. space systems as a new sector of U.S. critical infrastructure. Developed by INSA’s Cyber Council, the paper, Designating the U.S. Space Sector as Critical Inf ...

New Paper Calls for Changes to CUI Program
ARLINGTON, VA (October 25, 2021)—The Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA) today released Complex, Confusing, and Costly: Challenges Implementing the Government’s Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) Program, a new paper that details the onerous implementation requirements of the government’s CUI Pr ...

New InT Paper Calls for Greater Information Sharing
Arlington, VA (October 6, 2021)—The Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA) today released a white paper, The Need for Transparency on Insider Threats: Improving Information Sharing Between Government and Industry, that identifies key policy and statutory changes needed to improve insider threat information sha ...
Op-Eds

Op-Ed: Cybersecurity Needs a Whole-of-Society Effort
In this May 31 Op-Ed published in The Hill, INSA Board Member Isaac Porche describes what is needed to protect our nation's critical infrastructure from cyber attack. To the surprise of many, Russia has not launched large-scale cyber attacks against the United States or its NATO allies since invading Ukraine on Feb. 24. ...

New INSA Op-Ed: Promoting Neurodiversity in the IC
The following Op-Ed by INSA President Suzanne Wilson Heckenberg and Policy Intern Ali Berman was published on ClearanceJobs.com on Wednesday, October 6: Each year the intelligence community (IC) loses thousands of talented workers to better-paid private sector jobs and often to an onerous security clearance process. In ...

INSA Op-Ed: Six Priorities to Revitalize National Intelligence
In this January 29 Op-Ed published in The Hill, INSA Chairman Letitia A. Long and INSA Vice President of Policy Larry Hanauer, outline key steps the new Director of National Intelligence can take to help revitalize the Intelligence Community. In a strong display of bipartisanship, the Senate confirmed Avril Haines a ...

INSA Op-Ed: Major Data Thefts Enable Adversaries to Target Americans
Val LeTellier | ClearanceJobs | September 29, 2020 Despite having taken place years ago, data breaches affecting the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Anthem Health, Equifax, Yahoo, Marriott, and United Airlines continue to help foreign adversaries recruit insider sources from government agencies, businesses, and univ ...

INSA Op-Ed: Leading the IC After 2020’s Upheavals
"In the wake of 2020’s transformative events, U.S. intelligence agencies must challenge longstanding institutional habits and embrace new ways to meet the nation’s strategic challenges," INSA Chairman Tish Long writes in her July 20 Op-Ed in Government Executive. Leading the Intelligence Community After 2020's Uph ...

INSA Op-Ed Addresses Security Clearance Reciprocity
The process for security clearance reciprocity needs to change In a Dec. 17 Op-Ed, INSA's Security Policy Reform Council Chair Charlie Allen calls on the Acting DNI to address the "burdensome and often redundant security policies and practices that prevent cleared government employees and contractors from moving across fed ...