(Photo by Umberto Shaw, via Pexels)
As the U.S. races to mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 by canceling major events, encouraging tele-working and sitting farther away from each other, a difficult question is on the horizon for America’s intelligence agencies: What happens if the work you do is too sensitive to do from home?
A next-order effect of the virus could be a temporary halt to classified operations, according to the Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA), a trade group for intelligence workers.
“Although many unclassified tasks may be suitable for telecommuting, classified work cannot be performed outside a government-approved secure facility; as a result, non-essential classified work that must be performed in secure workspaces may be significantly disrupted,” says a recent statement from the group. “Many companies with extensive government contracts — and their employees — could find it difficult to weather a sustained interruption of operations.”
READ: Inside the CIA, a Nightmare Version of ‘The Office’
In addition to the thousands of workers toiling on sensitive projects inside the headquarters of American intelligence organizations like the Central Intelligence Agency or National Security Agency, there are tens of thousands of others working at defense and intelligence contracting companies. The workers can use classified, closed computer networks to communicate, and the juiciest stuff goes on inside Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities, popularly known as SCIFs. Those employee cutting edge technology to defeat eavesdropping — defenses that workers wouldn’t have at home. (Unless you’re Gene Hackman from the prescient Enemy of the State, of course.)
The INSA statement asks the government to take measures to make sure the “Trusted Workforce” is taken care of if their classified work is “suspended for an extended period of time.”
READ: Trump’s Biodefense Strategy Team Has Never Met
Sen. Mark Warner, the Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, added to the worries in a letter today, asking Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell to protect the clearances of workers who might be affected by a shutdown.
“COVID-19 may have many effects on our workforce, to include financial difficulty and psychological stress,” Warner wrote. “… This could impact their credit scores and jeopardize their ability to secure or maintain a clearance or hold a position of trust.”
In the security clearance process, investigators take an applicant’s financial status into consideration, since any stress there could be a vulnerability to be exploited by foreign intelligence agencies. When the government shut down in early 2019, former intelligence officials told me the withholding of paychecks could create an opening for foreign spy recruiters.
“The people we go after… we’re looking for that disgruntled person, that person who was passed over for a promotion, people who aren’t being paid, people who aren’t being respected by their government,” Darrell M. Blocker, a former longtime CIA station chief and current ABC News contributor, said then.
If the government shuts down again, this time because of a novel virus, the same fears could present themselves anew.
[Like what you see and read on Code and Dagger? Become a Patreon and help keep the lights on. Do you have a tip or question? Reach out at CodeAndDagger@protonmail.com.]