Biosecurity

Intelligence community wrestles with a security threat: Coronavirus hardship

As government work slows and non-essential workers are sent home to prevent the spread of COVID-19, money is getting tighter — and many in the national security community are wondering whether their security clearances could be on the line as a result.

The U.S. national security apparatus has played a key role in the coronavirus response, monitoring how the disease has affected closed societies like China, Iran and North Korea while working to prevent the virus from spreading inside the nation’s intelligence and defense agencies themselves.

But the disruption of normal government operations as agencies implement “social distancing” policies could leave federal contractors and their employees without a paycheck, potentially jeopardizing their ability to hold or maintain a security clearance if they start to miss payments and incur debt. Clearance holders or applicants who have debt are considered more vulnerable to bribery or coercion, and financial irresponsibility is generally considered to be indicative of irresponsibility in other areas.