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If you're blackmailable, or financially in dire straits, you should not hold a TS clearance. Seriously. End of story. If someone with a TS clearance ever has s

If you're blackmailable, or financially in dire straits, you should not hold a TS clearance. Seriously. End of story. If someone with a TS clearance ever has someone attempt to blackmail them, they're obligated to tell their boss and security officer(s).

mikeash 11y ago
It's a good thing the process for deciding who gets a clearance is completely foolproof....
- simoncion 11y ago
  Part of what makes the system work as well as it does is honesty. Honesty and integrity are two of the things that the clearance interviews look for.
Balgair 11y ago
True, but giving the gov your blackmail file and giving your kid's nosy 3rd grade school teacher your blackmail file are different things. It is not difficult to imagine a person with a TS using AM, telling their boss about 'that one time' or not even worrying to tell them, having their OPM data flung to outer Bongolia, and then having this AM data bounced about. Though people should be better about updating their blackmail files at HQ.gov, they are not. These hacks in conjunction are really going to make a mess of things going forward. If you were thinking of giving the gov your blackmail file, you may be rethinking that info, as it seems to uninformed people (which are most of us on HN) that you may be better at keeping your personal secrets than the gov is. A chilling effect indeed.
- simoncion 11y ago
  > True, but giving the gov your blackmail file ... You misunderstand me. If you're blackmailable, you shouldn't be holding a TS clearance. If you're granted a TS, and later become blackmailable, you really should have your clearance revoked.
  - Balgair 11y ago
    But, if the gov has your blackmail file, then you are by definition not able to be blackmailed. What am I missing?
    - simoncion 11y ago
      That's not quite it. Blackmail is possible when one has a secret that one really does not revealed to some set of parties. If you reveal that secret to your employer, but still fear its disclosure to other parties, then you are still blackmailable. If you don't fear the disclosure of the personal secrets you've revealed to your government employer, then you also don't particularly care about your government employer's systems getting breached and revealing those secrets to the world. Might you be mad as hell at the incompetence? Sure! But your risk of blackmail is not increased because of the disclosure because you weren't blackmailable to begin with. Make sense?

mikeash 11y ago

It's a good thing the process for deciding who gets a clearance is completely foolproof....

simoncion 11y ago
Part of what makes the system work as well as it does is honesty. Honesty and integrity are two of the things that the clearance interviews look for.

Balgair 11y ago

True, but giving the gov your blackmail file and giving your kid's nosy 3rd grade school teacher your blackmail file are different things. It is not difficult to imagine a person with a TS using AM, telling their boss about 'that one time' or not even worrying to tell them, having their OPM data flung to outer Bongolia, and then having this AM data bounced about. Though people should be better about updating their blackmail files at HQ.gov, they are not. These hacks in conjunction are really going to make a mess of things going forward. If you were thinking of giving the gov your blackmail file, you may be rethinking that info, as it seems to uninformed people (which are most of us on HN) that you may be better at keeping your personal secrets than the gov is. A chilling effect indeed.

simoncion 11y ago
> True, but giving the gov your blackmail file ... You misunderstand me. If you're blackmailable, you shouldn't be holding a TS clearance. If you're granted a TS, and later become blackmailable, you really should have your clearance revoked.
- Balgair 11y ago
  But, if the gov has your blackmail file, then you are by definition not able to be blackmailed. What am I missing?
  - simoncion 11y ago
    That's not quite it. Blackmail is possible when one has a secret that one really does not revealed to some set of parties. If you reveal that secret to your employer, but still fear its disclosure to other parties, then you are still blackmailable. If you don't fear the disclosure of the personal secrets you've revealed to your government employer, then you also don't particularly care about your government employer's systems getting breached and revealing those secrets to the world. Might you be mad as hell at the incompetence? Sure! But your risk of blackmail is not increased because of the disclosure because you weren't blackmailable to begin with. Make sense?