downloading music and security clearance

bhs00

Could you be denied a security clearance if you have ever downloaded pirated software or music?? I will have to pass a security clearance for a new job and I was wondering how that works. Anyone with a clearance know?

the_Grinch

Blackout wrote: »

This ^
Old man told me a story about a guy married to a foreign national, they asked him if he ever talked to his in-laws and he said no. They asked him if they ever called the house, he said yes. Do you ever answer the phone? Yes and I give the phone to my wife.......So you do talk to your in-laws?

The guy got his clearance pulled for it. Scary indeed.

Interesting, but not surprising. I've known a number of very talented people/agents who have been denied clearances for things like this. A lot of times it comes down to the country that the family is from. My background investigator's wife was from Ireland (not Northern Ireland) and he was denied a TS. One of my security professors wife is from an Asian country and he was also denied. It definitely sucks and probably isn't the fairest thing in the world, but all it took was some agency getting burned once to change the policy. If you want to read a great book on the polygraph/background investigation pick up Gatekeeper: Memoirs of a CIA Polygraph Examiner (Amazon.com: Gatekeeper: Memoirs of a CIA Polygraph Examiner (9781597970464): John F. Sullivan: Books). The stories he has in this book will make your head spin.