Defense Joint Counterintelligence Activities

The Defense Counterintelligence Security Agency (DCSA) is a strategic asset to the nation and our allies - continuously ensuring a trusted federal, industrial, and affiliated workforce, and enabling industry's delivery of uncompromised capabilities by leveraging advanced technologies and innovation. DCSA uniquely blends critical technology protection, trusted personnel vetting, counterintelligence, and professional education and certification to advance and preserve America's strategic edge. The Polygraph+/Polygraph Next program is a transformative effort to modernize federal polygraph and credibility assessment technologies, enhancing accuracy, reliability, usability, and traceability. DCSA will conduct independent validation studies, field testing, and prototype evaluations to advance standoff sensing, automated scoring, and decision aids. The program also aims to develop centralized data storage and analytics capabilities to support these innovations. By integrating non-contact sensing systems and AI/ML-based scoring algorithms, Polygraph+/Polygraph Next will address emerging challenges in personnel vetting and insider threat detection, ensuring the integrity of the cleared workforce and safeguarding sensitive information critical to national security. This program is vital to national security, directly impacting the readiness of the warfighter by increasing efficiencies in vetting the trusted workforce. Standoff sensing capabilities, such as non-contact physiological monitoring, reduce variability in sensor setup, streamline workflows, and enable faster, more accurate assessments. These advancements minimize human error, improve traceability across cases, and enhance decision-making processes, ensuring that personnel vetting aligns with operational needs and readiness requirements. By modernizing credibility assessment technologies, Polygraph+/Polygraph Next strengthens the Department of War’s ability to maintain a trustworthy workforce, directly supporting mission-critical operations and safeguarding national security. Through collaboration with research partners like Applied Research Lab for Intelligence and Security (ARLIS), Oak Ridge National laboratory (ORNL), and industry leaders, Polygraph+/Polygraph Next delivers validated tools and methodologies that align with evolving mission needs and bolster the nation’s security posture.

The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) is a strategic asset to the nation and our allies - continuously ensuring a trusted federal, industrial, and affiliated workforce and enabling industry's delivery of uncompromised capabilities by leveraging advanced technologies and innovation. DCSA uniquely blends critical technology protection, counterintelligence, security and professional education and certification to advance and preserve America's strategic edge. DCSA Counterintelligence (CI) conducts activities to identify, assess, deter and mitigate foreign intelligence and cyber threats to U.S. Government’s industrial base, the trusted workforce, and the cleared National Industrial Base (NIB).CI provides direct support to the National Industrial Security Program (NISP) and the cleared Defense Industrial Base (DIB) to ensure the safety of classified information from foreign adversaries. CI provides functional services to Department of War (DoW) and cleared industry. The CI Systems Modernization requires the capability to operate within a secure cloud infrastructure with Cross-domain Data Layer functionality. This modernization addresses critical capability gaps where Foreign Intelligence Entity (FIE) capabilities currently outpace CI’s legacy systems due to the sheer volume of information (32,000+ raw reports annually). The program requires Secure Data Ingestion, Advanced Data Analytics, and interoperability with DoW and National Intelligence systems. These features will enable CI to triage reporting in real-time, automate records retention, and integrate Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to confront an evolving threat landscape.

The Defense Counterintelligence Security Agency (DCSA) is a strategic asset to the nation and our allies - continuously ensuring a trusted federal, industrial, and affiliated workforce, and enabling industry's delivery of uncompromised capabilities by leveraging advanced technologies and innovation. DCSA uniquely blends critical technology protection, trusted personnel vetting, counterintelligence, and professional education and certification to advance and preserve America's strategic edge. The programs which fall under the Defense Joint Counterintelligence Activities are the Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence and Security (ARLIS) and the Critical Technology Protection Integration Cell (CTPIC). The ARLIS program management office oversees the University Affiliated Research Center (UARC) to provide strategic research and development to solve intelligence and security problems. ARLIS overlays human behavior and social science and culture and language expertise with expertise, research, and development in emerging and advanced technologies to solve increasingly technical, but human-centered intelligence and security challenges. RDT&E funding will be used for strategic research efforts that broadly benefit the Defense Security Enterprise (DSE) and develop capability and capacity at ARLIS that work sponsors can build on. The CTPIC is a whole-of-government engagement effort to deter, detect, and disrupt the unauthorized technology transfer activities of our adversaries. CTPIC serves as the DoW focal point for assessments, coordination, integration, and operational information sharing related to critical technology protection across all phases of research, development, and sustainment. This funding is needed for data access and analysis tools that support prioritization of limited resources and direct focused engagements addressing targeted threat information and mitigation actions.

The Defense Counterintelligence Security Agency (DCSA) is a strategic asset to the nation and our allies - continuously ensuring a trusted federal, industrial, and affiliated workforce, and enabling industry's delivery of uncompromised capabilities by leveraging advanced technologies and innovation. DCSA uniquely blends critical technology protection, trusted personnel vetting, counterintelligence, and professional education and certification to advance and preserve America's strategic edge. The programs which fall under the Defense Joint Counterintelligence Activities are the Critical Technology Protection Integration Cell (CTPIC) and Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence and Security (ARLIS). The CTPIC is a whole-of-government engagement effort to deter, detect, and disrupt the unauthorized technology transfer activities of our adversaries. CTPIC serves as the DoW focal point for assessments, coordination, integration, and operational information sharing related to critical technology protection across all phases of research, development, and sustainment. This funding is needed for data access and analysis tools that support prioritization of limited resources and direct focused engagements addressing targeted threat information and mitigation actions. The ARLIS program management office oversees the University Affiliated Research Center (UARC) to provide strategic research and development to solve intelligence and security problems. ARLIS overlays human behavior and social science and culture and language expertise with expertise, research, and development in emerging and advanced technologies to solve increasingly technical, but human-centered intelligence and security challenges. RDT&E funding will be used for strategic research efforts that broadly benefit the Defense Security Enterprise (DSE) and develop capability and capacity at ARLIS that work sponsors can build on.