Volume 1, Issue 17
SE&M Solutions LLC publishes The In-Brief to help keep government and industry leaders aware of important issues in the personnel security, suitability, Trusted Workforce 2.0, background investigations, adjudications, counterintelligence, industrial security communities, and emerging technologies.
Articles of Interest
The Future of Security Clearances Lies With AI, Automation, and the Next Generation of Vetting
ClearanceJobs reports as the demand for professionals with security clearances surges in fields like cybersecurity, intelligence, and defense contracting, new technologies are being integrated to make vetting faster, smarter, and more adaptive. AI, automation, and continuous vetting tools are reshaping how the government and its partners assess trustworthiness and detect insider threats.
The Rise of Quantum–Safe Authentication
A new blog from SE&M Solutions highlights that as quantum technology continues to mature, so does the urgency for quantum-safe authentication. The immense parallel processing capabilities of quantum computing threatens to upend the cryptographic systems that underpin the internet. The question is no longer if quantum-safe authentication will become essential, but when. Read more from SE&M Solutions.
House Passes National Defense Authorization Act
Breaking Defense reports the House passed the fiscal 2026 defense policy authorization bill, setting up passage in the Senate before Congress goes on holiday break. The NDAA authorizes $900.6B in defense funds, including $26B in shipbuilding, $38B for aircraft, $4B for ground vehicles, and $25B for munitions. However, the cornerstone has been plans to speed up acquisitions and making it easier for new entrants to do business with the Pentagon.
More on defense acquisitions reform here.
Air Force CISO: You’re Thinking About Network Resilience Wrong
Air Force Chief Information Security Officer Aaron Bishop recently commented at the Alamo Cybersecurity Exposition in San Antonio that most people view network resilience primarily from an operational lens of redundancy and recovery after a network has gone down. However, to be truly resilient, the goal is to prevent networks from going down in the first place. For Bishop, true resilience is protecting the network at the component level and below. “Zero Trust is about resilience at a micro-component level. Each of the components of the system has its own protection, and you build on that,” he said. More from Breaking Defense.
Real-Time Cryptocurrencies Monitoring for Criminal Activity Detection
A report from the Homeland Defense & Security Information Analysis Center proposes a two-step approach to address criminal activity in cryptocurrencies: off-chain (blockchain) and on-chain monitoring. Off-chain monitoring involves AI-based real-time surveillance on the conventional and dark webs and social media analytics to detect fraudulent entities before the fraud has taken place. On-chain monitoring involves machine-learning to detect fraudulent addresses in Bitcoin and Ethereum after the fraud has occurred. Another priority is to identify money-laundering activities involving cryptocurrencies. Read the report here.
Upcoming Events and Conferences
2026 Defense R&D Summit
Jan 29, 2026
Hilton-McLean | McLean, VA
The Potomac Officers Club is hosting the 2026 Defense Research & Development Summit where the nation’s top defense leaders, researchers and innovators will converge to examine the technologies revolutionizing the future of warfare. The keynote speaker will be Hon. Emil Michael, Undersecretary of Defense for Research & Engineering and the Acting Director of the Defense Innovation Unit.
About SE&M
SE&M Solutions LLC is a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) headquartered in Harrisburg, PA. We are experts in personnel security, continuous vetting, Trusted Workforce 2.0 (TW2.0) policies, processes, and information technology. We offer professional services and IT support including staff augmentation, consulting, planning and implementation for clients in the federal, state, local and commercial sectors. For more information, contact SE&M at info@semsolutionsllc.com.