Continuous Vetting with OSINT: A Guide for Government Security Teams

The federal government’s Trusted Workforce 2.0 initiative replaced the periodic reinvestigation model with continuous vetting. Instead of reviewing cleared personnel every 5 to 10 years and hoping nothing changed in between, agencies now monitor for security-relevant indicators on an ongoing basis.

OSINT plays a specific and growing role in this framework. Publicly available information — social media activity, public records, web presence — can surface indicators that warrant further review without requiring the resource-intensive process of a formal reinvestigation.

Why the Old Model Failed

The periodic reinvestigation model had a structural flaw that everyone recognized but nobody addressed for decades: multi-year windows between reviews.

An employee who received their clearance in 2018 and wasn’t scheduled for reinvestigation until 2028 had a ten-year period where significant life changes, foreign contacts, financial distress, radicalization, or behavioral deterioration could go undetected by the security apparatus. The famous cases of insider threat — from Snowden to Manning to Winner — all involved cleared individuals whose security-relevant behavioral changes occurred between reviews.

Continuous vetting closes that window by monitoring for relevant indicators between formal investigations.

What OSINT Contributes to Continuous Vetting

Social Media Monitoring

Publicly available social media activity can surface indicators relevant to personnel security: expressions of allegiance to foreign governments or entities, indicators of radicalization or extremist sympathies, disclosures of classified or sensitive information, significant behavioral changes visible in posting patterns, and undisclosed foreign contacts visible through social connections.

The monitoring is limited to publicly available content — what the individual has chosen to share publicly or failed to restrict through privacy settings. Private messages, restricted accounts, and encrypted communications are outside scope.

Public Records Monitoring

Court filings, financial judgments, property transactions, and legal proceedings available through public records can indicate financial distress, legal problems, or significant life changes that may be relevant to security adjudication.

Web Presence Monitoring

Domain registrations, business affiliations, and web presence associated with cleared personnel can reveal undisclosed business activities, financial relationships, or organizational affiliations that warrant review.

Implementation Considerations

Legal and Policy Framework

Continuous vetting OSINT operates within defined legal and policy boundaries. Collection is limited to publicly available information. Monitoring scope is defined by the individual’s clearance level and access. Automated processing requires human review before any adjudicative action is taken. And privacy protections — data minimization, purpose limitation, and retention controls — govern how collected information is used and stored.

Agencies must establish documented policies that define what is monitored, under what authority, with what oversight, and with what privacy protections. These policies protect both the agency and the individuals under monitoring.

Balancing Detection With Rights

Continuous vetting monitoring must distinguish between security-relevant indicators and protected expression. Political opinions, religious beliefs, and association activities are constitutionally protected. The monitoring framework must focus on behavioral indicators — not ideological ones — though the line between these isn’t always clean.

Training for personnel who review OSINT findings is essential. Untrained reviewers may conflate political expression with security concerns, creating both legal liability and workforce trust problems.

Platform Requirements

Government OSINT platforms need capabilities beyond what commercial platforms typically provide: US-based data processing and storage, defined retention policies with automated purging, comprehensive audit logging for all collection and access activities, role-based access controls with clearance-level segregation, and compliance with relevant government security standards.

DigitalStakeout is a US-based, independently held platform that provides continuous vetting OSINT capabilities with audit logging, access controls, and data management features aligned with government security requirements.

---

Learn how DigitalStakeout supports government continuous vetting. View the platform or contact us.