SCIF Global Technologies: When it comes to national security, how much is "too much"?

JACKSONVILLE, Fla., July 17, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Jaye Andone, owner of SCIF Global Technologies in Jacksonville, Florida, describes a SCIF, an acronym for "sensitive compartmented information facility," as a "secure room that guards against electronic surveillance and suppresses data leakage of sensitive information." SCIF Global Technologies custom builds these units to the technical requirements of the customer and manufactures most of the units in Florida. A unit takes about 90-120 days to build, Andone says.

SCIF Global Technologies specializes in portable, modular SCIF units that offer the flexibility to relocate them. The company celebrates its 8^-year business anniversary on August 2, 2019. The SCIF units designed and produced by SCIF Global Technologies were virtually unknown to the public until recently. These units are now common knowledge for most major media outlets.

The EPA spent over $50,000 for a SCIF in the form of a secure, soundproof communications booth that would prevent eavesdropping and data security breaches. The purchase was criticized because no previous EPA administrator had ever contracted a SCIF this secure, prompting questions regarding whether this constituted excessive, unnecessary government spending.

However, in the current climate, rife with shocking security breaches like the 2017 Reality Winner scandal, the EPA's decision might be better understood a proactive move to protect sensitive information in an effort to avoid exponentially higher expenditures, monetarily and otherwise, of scrambling to recover from the fallout of a data breach.

Winner, a contract linguist with the NSA who had top security clearance, literally walked out of an NSA office building with a top-secret report tucked into her pantyhose and later mailed the report to an online news agency, all acts that compromised national security and intelligence efforts and landed Winner in prison.

The Winner breach begs the question "how much is too much?" when it comes to national security.

According to Andone, for the type SCIF that was built for the EPA, "the price was reasonable."

Clients requesting SCIFs require the utmost discretion and protection from publicity; they do not use SCIFs solely to protect top-secret information. They use SCIFs to protect any information they consider "sensitive." The completed FBI investigation into Supreme-Court judge Brett Kavanaugh comprised print files that had to be viewed only within the confines of the Senate SCIF.

SOURCE SCIF Global Technologies, LLC.