Security Clearance

[TheFaQQer]

DVLA

I was on project build, no access to live, plus it's car number plates and tax discs...

DWP

Build again, no access to live

Just because you have no access to live doesn't mean that the data you are looking at in the build isn't classified in some way. How good are the scrambling algorithms to generate dummy data for build?

Does DVLA not store an address or any other information about the car and the owner? If the title field for the owner name allows things like "General" and then links to an address, I can understand why that would be information that you don't want to get out.

[stek]

Just because you have no access to live doesn't mean that the data you are looking at in the build isn't classified in some way. How good are the scrambling algorithms to generate dummy data for build?

Does DVLA not store an address or any other information about the car and the owner? If the title field for the owner name allows things like "General" and then links to an address, I can understand why that would be information that you don't want to get out.

We didn't see any data at all, just built the POWER7 frames, Oracle RAC, over to the DVLA staff themselves to load the data. As soon as we'd finished the frames where off our build network.

Similar at DWP.

At HMRC I had no access at all though that was an architecture role with access to docs that had topos in etc. but still nowhere near an actual tax record.

[malvolio]

We didn't see any data at all, just built the POWER7 frames, Oracle RAC, over to the DVLA staff themselves to load the data. As soon as we'd finished the frames where off our build network.

Similar at DWP.

At HMRC I had no access at all though that was an architecture role with access to docs that had topos in etc. but still nowhere near an actual tax record.

Doesn't actually matter that much. The clearance level is set by a formal risk analysis process that should (but rarely does) distinguish between various levels of data within a system (to be fair, they are a lot more rigorous with the high-value stuff above SC). Often the whole dataset will be classified since (a) it's easier and (b) everyone is cleared so what's the problem. ANother of the issues to be addressed...

[FarmerPalmer]

The embedded market has been a bit of a desert for the last few weeks, but I was told by an agent today that they had a lot of defence work locally which he couldn't fill but couldn't put me forward as I don't have security clearance.

I would wait a month and pay for the clearance myself if I could, but I can't, and it still remains a closed shop.

Maybe I need look for a permanent job in defence to get clearance, then move back to contracting in a couple of years - how else can you do it

.. oh well I have a few months yet before I get desperate, I just wish the weather would cool off so I could get out on my mountain bike

[northernladuk]

The embedded market has been a bit of a desert for the last few weeks, but I was told by an agent today that they had a lot of defence work locally which he couldn't fill but couldn't put me forward as I don't have security clearance.

I would wait a month and pay for the clearance myself if I could, but I can't, and it still remains a closed shop.

Maybe I need look for a permanent job in defence to get clearance, then move back to contracting in a couple of years - how else can you do it

.. oh well I have a few months yet before I get desperate, I just wish the weather would cool off so I could get out on my mountain bike

Why wait a couple of years? Get a job, get clearance in 6 weeks then leave. Nothing to say it's just as closed for permies though.

[malvolio]

The embedded market has been a bit of a desert for the last few weeks, but I was told by an agent today that they had a lot of defence work locally which he couldn't fill but couldn't put me forward as I don't have security clearance.

I would wait a month and pay for the clearance myself if I could, but I can't, and it still remains a closed shop.

Maybe I need look for a permanent job in defence to get clearance, then move back to contracting in a couple of years - how else can you do it

.. oh well I have a few months yet before I get desperate, I just wish the weather would cool off so I could get out on my mountain bike

You don't need clearance to apply (come to that you don't actually need clearance to work on site, with just a little effort from the client). So friend agent and whatever Human Remains wonk he's dealing with need to learnt the rules of their business.

Tell them you are being discriminated against and will take it to the ECHR, that might frighten them into doing some reading...

Tell them you can cut code without knowing the data it will be used against...

Tell them to read Security clearance in freelancing | PCG and the supporting material then explain why you can't be considered...

Then report them to the Cabinet Office...


HTH

[cojak]

I would wait a month and pay for the clearance myself if I could, but I can't, and it still remains a closed shop.

You said you can't but is that a money problem? Can you pay a company for your SC?

[malvolio]

You said you can't but is that a money problem? Can you pay a company for your SC?

Nope, not possible. Apart from anything else, the clearance is with the role, not the person.

SC these days costs a couple of hundred at tops, and takes two weeks on average starting from scratch. There is no reason at all to include it as a selection criterion for anything other than an urgent role for a post like a sysadmin where you can't oversee what they are doing and/or have high system privileges. That's around 5% of advertised roles and doesn't include coders.