Pentagon Taps Joseph Tonon to Lead DCSA

The Department of Defense (DOD) selected Joseph Tonon to serve as the next director of the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA), the agency announced. As director, Tonon will take on the agency’s longstanding challenge to modernize the federal government’s background investigations system.

Under the Trump administration, DOD has been rebranded as the Department of War.

Tonon replaces Justin Overbaugh, the deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence and security, who had served as acting director of DCSA since last November. The agency’s previous permanent director, David Cattler, retired last September.

According to officials, Tonon will  oversee “personnel vetting and industrial security for critical elements of the government and more than 10,000 companies and 12,500 facilities in the National Industrial Security Program, while also providing security training and counterintelligence support for these critical areas.”

A key priority for Tonon will be directing the continued development and deployment of the National Background Investigation Services (NBIS), the IT system supporting the federal government’s Trusted Workforce 2.0 (TW 2.0) personnel vetting reform initiative.

The government launched its TW 2.0 effort in 2018 to reduce onboarding time, enable workforce mobility, and improve insights into workforce behaviors during government-wide personnel vetting – including by introducing automated continuous vetting across agencies.  But the NBIS system has run into challenges that have slowed down adoption of TW 2.0 and presented problems for many agencies in adapting their personnel vetting IT systems

Originally expected to be delivered in 2019, the program is now delayed until fiscal year 2027, while estimated costs have increased from $2.4 billion to $4.6 billion.

Tonon most recently worked for Amazon Web Services on the company’s Global Defense team. He previously served in senior government positions, including acting assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low intensity conflict, and special assistant to the deputy secretary of defense, where he advised on technical and programmatic issues. Additionally, while on the secretary of the Navy’s staff, Tonon led an initiative aimed at preventing the loss of critical data and technology from the Department of the Navy and the defense industrial base.