Passed CISSP Today - Have a Secret Clearance (DoD) question

Hi folks,

New to the forums, glad I found them!

I just passed the exam today and have a quick question regarding previous work experience. I once worked for a contracting company between 1996-2000 and had a Secret Clearance with them through the DoD. We did a lot of work at various military bases through the southwest.

My problem is, the company I was working for (Synetics Corporation) was purchased by SAIC and amalgamated into SAIC which was a huge competitor at the time. There are no longer any contacts there for verification purposes, can (ISC)² still confirm that I had the Secret Clearance during that five year span? I have 27 years in IT, but figured those particular years would clearly count towards my eligibility.

Would anyone happen to know? I would certainly appreciate any ideas.

Thanks!

- MM

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Comments

zxbane

MM,

I am a little confused because I don't understand how the clearance affects your IT experience. Unless I'm mistaken ISC2 is concerned with your experience, not any particular security clearances you hold/held. Maybe someone else can chime in and I am wrong here. When I submitted my endorsement it covered my experience and didn't focus on my security clearance

MajorMulligan

I understand your point. Allow me to explain further - I may have 27 years of experience, but not all of it is geared specifically to InfoSec (or one of the ten CBKs). Yet, during this particular window of time, it was. So if (ISC)² cannot pick up the phone and call the Synetics Corporation for a reference (it no longer exists) how are they to verify my Secret Clearance which clearly should fulfill their experience requirements? I am hoping they have a means of verifying my previous Secret Clearance status in order to accept that experience gained during 1996 to late 2000.

I hope this helps...

Thanks,

- MM

paul78

You may want to check with ISC2 but I wouldn't expect that having a secret clearance necessarily equates having the relevant experience required by ISC2. I have several friends in the military with clearances and they don't do any infosec or IT work.

It's likely going to be more important that you can list your experience and have it validated by someone.

MajorMulligan

Hi Paul,

I figured as much, however I was hoping they could at least verify the clearance to help validate my experience listed. Thanks for the response, I appreciate it. It sucks to have 4+ years with a company that no longer exists.

- MM

spicy ahi

Having a clearance indirectly proves experience in some of the CBK's. I can't remember which ones specifically but off the top of my head physical security and operations security come to mind. As a clearance holder, you are indoctrinated in policies and procedures involved in handling of classified materials, as well as protection and proper storage of those materials. There was a great article written about this somewhere, but I can't find it at the moment. I'll repost the article if I do find it because I recall that it mentioned the domains covered and their correlation with things you learn when you have a clearance along with examples.

OP - I had a friend who was in a similar situation. He was assigned to a unit where he did IA related work but of course, everyone has since moved on. What he did was put the contact information of a couple of people he worked with who could validate the work he did there. Maybe if you could contact a few coworkers from that point in time that may suffice. Of course, as everyone else who deals with ISC learns, it's best to contact them first with this particular situation and get their official stance.

MajorMulligan

Hey thanks Spicy! Not going to ask where the monkey comes in. LOL!

I do plan to contact them directly with my inquiries. Luckily, I have several folks willing to endorse me, it is now just a matter of allowing my experience to speak for itself. I believe that I did see something similar to what you stated with regard to the clearance and how it applies to a couple CBKs, thus my desire to get that approved by (ISC)². I am not even sure if I would be able to find those co-workers. It has been 14 years. I would love to see whatever you can find on the subject.

Thanks a bunch for the information. I'll be contacting (ISC)² by the end of the week. I am still jazzed that I passed the test today.

- MM

JDMurray

If you have an endorser then it's your endorser's responsibility to verify your work background, not the (ISC)2.

And I'm with paul78 in that having a DoD clearance means nothing with regards to proving that you have professional InfoSec work experience. I had a DoD TS/SSBI for years and all I needed to do was fill out some paperwork, be fingerprinted, sit through one interview, and wait three months. There was no prerequisites for work experiences to obtain the clearance. All of the janitors in my building had DoD Secret clearances and they certainly didn't do InfoSec work.

MajorMulligan

JDMurray wrote: »

If you have an endorser then it's your endorser's responsibility to verify your work background, not the (ISC)2.

I actually just found this out earlier today. So yes, that will need to be done by the person who is endorsing me.

Good points about the janitors - point taken. Regardless of this fact, the work I was doing at that time did involve InfoSec related work and the problem I STILL have is the business itself is no longer available. I may just need to deal with it.

BlackBeret

spicy ahi wrote: »

Having a clearance indirectly proves experience in some of the CBK's. I can't remember which ones specifically but off the top of my head physical security and operations security come to mind. As a clearance holder, you are indoctrinated in policies and procedures involved in handling of classified materials, as well as protection and proper storage of those materials. There was a great article written about this somewhere, but I can't find it at the moment. I'll repost the article if I do find it because I recall that it mentioned the domains covered and their correlation with things you learn when you have a clearance along with examples.

OP - I had a friend who was in a similar situation. He was assigned to a unit where he did IA related work but of course, everyone has since moved on. What he did was put the contact information of a couple of people he worked with who could validate the work he did there. Maybe if you could contact a few coworkers from that point in time that may suffice. Of course, as everyone else who deals with ISC learns, it's best to contact them first with this particular situation and get their official stance.

If you can find that article I would be interested. Thanks.

BlackBeret

Interestingly while looking for more information on this I did find that my MOS counts towards the CISSP requirement, as it should. So I guess that makes it easy for me when I take the test.