Federal Investigative Services Information Technology

The Federal Investigative Services Information Technology program, under Program Element PE 0303430V, is managed by the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA). Its primary objective is to support the modernization and migration of the National Background Investigation Services (NBIS) portfolio, which provides end-to-end personnel vetting for the United States Government. The FY 2026 budget request includes Research, Development, Test & Evaluation (RDT&E) funding to advance these goals, focusing on enhancing IT systems that underpin federal background investigations and personnel security processes.

National Background Investigation Services (NBIS) is the central line item within this program. NBIS encompasses a suite of twenty-one personnel vetting systems and applications, which collectively manage the full lifecycle of vetting activities, including initial vetting, continuous vetting, upgrades, transfer of trust, and re-establishment of trust. The systems are diverse in architecture and deployment, ranging from on-premise mainframes to cloud-hosted services. FY 2026 funding is specifically targeted at migrating legacy applications to the cloud, modernizing existing systems, and ensuring continued operation of current infrastructure during the transition.

A key goal of the NBIS modernization effort is to incorporate advanced security features, notably Zero Trust architecture and Trusted Workforce 2.0 capabilities. Zero Trust principles will be integrated into NBIS cloud applications to strengthen cybersecurity and reduce risks associated with unauthorized access. Trusted Workforce 2.0 enhancements are designed to meet evolving customer requirements for personnel vetting, ensuring the system remains responsive to federal agency needs. These improvements will be applied to core NBIS components, including the Defense Information System for Security (DISS), Mirador, Secure Web Fingerprint Transmission (SWFT), and re-platformed elements of the Personnel Investigations Processing System (PIPS) and Background Investigation Enterprise Systems (BIES).

Additional objectives for FY 2026 include the development and deployment of new application features for electronic forms and management tools, such as the Electronic Application (eApp), Personal Vetting Questionnaire/Position Designation Tool (PVQ/PDT), Investigation Management (IM), Data Management System (DMS), and Atlas-N. Atlas-N supports the Adjudication and Vetting Services (AVS) mission, particularly for expedited screening and continuous vetting. These upgrades are intended to streamline workflows, improve data management, and enhance interoperability across the NBIS portfolio.

The program also aims to facilitate continuous integration and delivery of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and data layer improvements. By migrating NBIS components to a cloud service provider using the Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability contracting vehicle, DCSA seeks to leverage modular, cloud-native applications and shared services. This approach is expected to increase scalability, flexibility, and security, while maximizing the reuse of existing capital investments in personnel vetting technology.

Funding for NBIS in FY 2026 was realigned from DCSA's Working Capital Fund to appropriated funding, reflecting the strategic importance and evolving requirements of the program. The RDT&E resources will support cloud hosting for the DevSecOps development pipeline and cover program management costs associated with the migration and modernization effort. No acquisition strategy details or other program funding summaries are provided, indicating that the focus remains on development and operational systems rather than procurement.