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Re:Classified tank specs leaked on War Thunder game forums a... by ethbr0 on Sunday October 10, 2021 @06:16PM (#28822484)
It begs the inclusion of "How much time do you spend online? And how much do you value the opinions of online communities?" as security clearance questions. Are they, now?

Historically, they'd be very interested in what you'd say to your friends, family, etc. But the allure of internet fame would seem to have a more pursuasive effect.

Re:Classified tank specs leaked on War Thunder game forums a... by SkittyDog on Sunday October 10, 2021 @09:46PM (#28823756)
If you read some historical accounts of spies, I think you'll notice there is already a massive ego/excitement boost to be had, without involving Internet fame... It's not ay l clear whether online activity would move the needle, in terms of predicting leakers.

But more importantly... Participating in online communities, and caring about one's online presence, is statistically normal behavior for working-age people in first world countries with Internet access... Moreso the younger you get. But the point is, it's massively normal behavior.

So if you tried to use your questions to predict potential leakers, you're just playing the "Most serial killers eat bread" game.

In order for your question to be a useful predictor, it would have to have low rates of both false positives, and false negatives. That doesn't seem very likely.

Re:Classified tank specs leaked on War Thunder game forums a... by ethbr0 on Monday October 11, 2021 @06:02PM (#28833603)
> "And how much do you value the opinions of online communities?"

Seems a more difficult question, but a more indicative one, which is why I included it.

Per my experience, you can easily find individuals who spend similar amounts of clock time in online communities, but are very different in how much the community can influence them.

F.ex. HN could offer me dang's karma count, and I wouldn't feel any compulsion to leak classified information here.

Re:Classified tank specs leaked on War Thunder game forums a... by eganist on Sunday October 10, 2021 @06:35PM (#28822604)
> Are they, now?

They're not included in Standard Form 86, latest revision November 2016: https://www.opm.gov/forms/pdf_fill/sf86.pdf

That's not to say it's excluded from polygraph questions; I can imagine a world where online associations are very relevant to an agency in need of a CI or full scope poly for compartment access.

Re:Classified tank specs leaked on War Thunder game forums a... by jdavis703 on Sunday October 10, 2021 @07:14PM (#28822814)
SF-86 doesn’t ask any questions like this. They’ll send out agents to collect more in-depth questions that may probe situations like this. They’ll also ask friends, neighbors, family etc about all sorts of things. This isn’t really the kind of question a self-reported form can answer (except for the most obvious questions like debt problems). It takes a human who can synthesize various statements to get pictures like “this person could be blackmailed” or “this person can’t keep a secret.”
Re:Classified tank specs leaked on War Thunder game forums a... by Waterluvian on Sunday October 10, 2021 @07:16PM (#28822826)
Wait. Some people still get put through a complete nonsense pseudoscience polygraph test for clearance?
Re:Classified tank specs leaked on War Thunder game forums a... by Spooky23 on Sunday October 10, 2021 @07:45PM (#28823003)
It’s a polite way of saying that you’ll be randomly interrogated.
Re:Classified tank specs leaked on War Thunder game forums a... by User23 on Sunday October 10, 2021 @07:31PM (#28822921)
It’s like the FAANG interview process. Everyone knows it’s suboptimal, but nobody knows how to do better at that scale.
Re:Classified tank specs leaked on War Thunder game forums a... by atatatat on Monday October 11, 2021 @12:17AM (#28824619)
Close.

It's similar because there are lots of false negatives, but few false positives.

Re:Classified tank specs leaked on War Thunder game forums a... by alksjdalkj on Sunday October 10, 2021 @09:19PM (#28823582)
My understanding is that it's used as an "interrogation" technique and that they don't really care what the machine tells them.
Re:Classified tank specs leaked on War Thunder game forums a... by belkinpower on Monday October 11, 2021 @12:23AM (#28824651)
They do, I had a clearance rejected because the examiner was convinced I had previous involvement in drug manufacturing. I don’t. I’ve never even used them. Hell, I barely drink. I ended up getting a much better non-clearance job offer elsewhere so it didn’t ultimately negatively affect my career, but it’s still irritating.
Re:Classified tank specs leaked on War Thunder game forums a... by evilduck on Sunday October 10, 2021 @07:24PM (#28822877)
It’s a standard practice for a tier of Top Secret security clearance.
Re:Classified tank specs leaked on War Thunder game forums a... by smabie on Monday October 11, 2021 @12:34AM (#28824693)
Is this a rhetorical question?
Re:Classified tank specs leaked on War Thunder game forums a... by wdb on Sunday October 10, 2021 @07:51PM (#28823038)
And of course your family gets checked too like for the anti-bribery check. E.g. how likely is it that your siblings can cause you to get bribed. Had a few of those as a sibling