The Defense Department reduced its number of security clearance holders by 900,000 from fiscal year 2013 through the first quarter of fiscal year 2016 in an effort to address potential insider threats, the Federation of American Scientists reported Wednesday.Steven Aftergood wrote in a FAS blog post that there are approximately 3.7 million employees and contractors at DoD that hold security clearances as of the first quarter of FY 2016 based on the agency’s Insider Threat and Security Clearance Reform report.
According to the report obtained by FAS, the number of DoD personnel with access to classified data increased to 2.3 million as of the first quarter of fiscal 2016 from the 2.2 million reported in the same period for fiscal 2015.
The report also showed that the State Department rolled out its own continuous evaluation pilot initiative, while the Pentagon increased the coverage of its CE pilot program to 225,000 personnel as of December 2015.
