New Background Investigations System Has Significant IT Needs

By Lloyd McCoy Jr., DOD Manager

When more than 21 million background investigation records get stolen, you can bet your bottom taxpayer dollars that changes are afoot.

Enter the National Background Investigations Bureau (NBIB), the name of the new organization that will host an entirely new (and hopefully improved) background investigations system. Organizationally, this office will fall under the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), but the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) will handle the development and operation of the underlying IT system infrastructure.

The President’s FY17 budget request for the Department of Defense (DOD) comes with an initial $95 million investment dedicated for this overhaul. It’s still early and requirements for this new system are being gathered, which means it’s the perfect time to get in front of decision makers and have discussions surrounding this initiative.

This is also an opportune time as government agencies are now beginning to plan for what will eventually go into the FY18 budget request. Expect even more funding to be allocated for this overhaul when the budget request comes out early next year.

Vendors with a play here are those that sell robust incident detection, diagnostics, and containment tools, not to mention threat analytics and identity/access management. In the near term, expect requirements to center on risk assessment/vulnerability management. DOD will soon help OPM audit the current system while the new one is being developed.

Piloting the project for DISA is the new Personnel Security Program Office, led by Martin Gross with Christopher Catlin helping manage and run the program on a day-to-day basis.

Want additional insight on selling IT to government? Reach out to the immixGroup Market Intelligence team today.