Keep an accredited space
in good standing.
Accreditation is a beginning, not an end. A secure facility stays in good standing while its condition matches what was accredited. Changes that affect the accredited baseline may need review, and coordination with the AO/CSA, before work starts; inspections are prepared for, and the day-to-day is run to the plan.
Anyone responsible for a secure facility after it opens.
- Facility security officers and owners of accredited spaces who need the space to stay usable for the life of the program.
- Programs whose space is changing: a renovation, new systems or cabling, more people, a move within the building.
- Organizations that inherited a facility through an acquisition, a new contract or a change of tenant.
Spaces drift from their accreditation through ordinary change.
A new cable path, a renovation next door, equipment moved, staff turnover, records that stop being kept. None of it is dramatic, and each change can need review against the accredited baseline, and coordination with the accrediting authority, before it is made. Found afterwards, the same change can mean reopening work that was finished.
One baseline, one change process, program-long.
- Establish the baseline. What the space was accredited for and its condition today, reconciled against the drawings and the evidence on record.
- Run changes through one process. Each proposed change is reviewed against the accredited baseline and coordinated with the AO/CSA where it requires, before work starts, so the space and its documents stay in step.
- Stay ready for inspection. Records and evidence kept current as the work happens, and self-inspection on a schedule, so a review is a walk-through rather than a reconstruction.
- Re-test when the AO/CSA requires it. Where the accreditation calls for shielding or other measures to be tested again, we arrange the testing and hand over the results.
- Support for the life of the program. Re-inspections, configuration changes and the day-to-day that keep the facility in good standing. Facility security officer support is available through a cleared partner.
What we ask about first.
- What the space is accredited for, described at an unclassified level, and the accrediting authority.
- The date of the last inspection and any open findings, in general terms.
- Changes you are planning, with their timing.
- Who runs the space today and how its records are kept.
Unclassified only. Describe the project at a planning level. Do not send classified information or CUI through this website or by email.
Where sustainment connects.
- Guide
Accreditation
How accreditation works, who decides, and what the package contains.
- Guide
Secure facility design and build
Why the evidence has to start during design.
- Compliance
Project Hawk
Maps obligations, tracks the evidence behind each one and flags drift, on your infrastructure.
- Recovery
Stalled project recovery
When a project or a facility has stopped moving.
The public standards behind this page.
- ICD-705 and its implementing standards, Office of the Director of National Intelligence: dni.gov, Intelligence Community Directives.
- Technical Specifications for Construction and Management of SCIFs (TSPM), version 1.5.1, ODNI National Counterintelligence and Security Center: dni.gov, TSPM v1.5.1 (PDF).
These are the public standards secure facilities are designed and built to. The accrediting authority applies them to a specific facility and may set additional requirements; this page is general information, not a determination or legal advice.
DCSA, or the applicable Cognizant Security Agency, determines facility clearances. The applicable Accrediting Official or Cognizant Security Authority accredits the facility. We prepare, build, coordinate and document, and stay through the determination.
Keep the space usable.
Tell us about the facility and what is changing. Typical response in one business day.