The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) is a federa
security
and

defense agency The is an executive department of the Government of Japan responsible for preserving the peace and independence of Japan, and maintaining the country’s national security and the Japan Self-Defense Forces. The ministry is headed by the ...

of the

United States Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secu ...

(DoD) that reports to the

Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence The under secretary of defense for intelligence and security or USD(I&S) is a high-ranking civilian position in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) within the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) that acts as the principal civilian advisor ...

.DCSA is the largest counterintelligence and security agency in the federal government and is responsible for providin
Personnel VetteingCritical Technology Protection

Counterintelligence Counterintelligence is an activity aimed at protecting an agency's intelligence program from an opposition's intelligence service. It includes gathering information and conducting activities to prevent espionage, sabotage, assassinations or ot ...

Training, Education and Certification.
DCSA services over 100 federal entities, oversees 10,000 cleared companies, and conducts approximately 2 million background investigations each year.

Background

The agency was originally established as the Defense Investigative Service and was created on January 1, 1972. In 1999, the agency changed its name to the Defense Security Service. In July 2019, DSS was reorganized as DCSA, in conjunction with the transfer of responsibility for conducting background investigations from OPM's

National Background Investigations Bureau The National Background Investigations Bureau (NBIB) was a semi-autonomous U.S. Government agency that was housed within the United States Office of Personnel Management. In September 2019, background investigations were transferred from OPM's N ...

Responsibility

DCSA conduct
personnel security investigations
for 95% of the

federal government A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governin ...

, supervise industrial security, and perform security education and awareness training. DCSA also provides the uniformed US military services, Department of Defense Agencies, 35 federal agencies, and approximately 10,000 cleared government contractor facilities with security support services. The Director of DCSA reports to the

National Industrial Security Program

DCSA administers the

National Industrial Security Program The National Industrial Security Program, or NISP, is the nominal authority in the United States for managing the needs of private industry to access classified information. The NISP was established in 1993 by Executive Order 12829. The Nationa ...

on behalf of the Department of Defense an
35 other federal agencies.
DCSA provides oversight to approximately 10,000 cleared contract companies to ensure they are adequately protecting facilities, personnel, and associated Information Technology systems from attacks and vulnerabilities.

Personnel

DCSA Industrial Security Representatives, Background Investigators and Information System Security Professionals are credentialed Special Agents. DCSA also uses a number of contract investigators and staff to help support DCSA's various mission.

Locations

Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency headquarters is located on Marine Corps Base, Quantico, Va. DCSA's field presence consists of 167 field offices across the United States.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Security Service