The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency spent $163.2 million on its industrial security mission in fiscal year 2025, a sharp jump from $102.8 million in FY2023 and the highest figure in the five-year period the GAO examined. But the spending increase tells only part of the story — and the more revealing part lies in where the money and personnel did not go.

From FY2021 through FY2024, total industrial security personnel remained essentially flat, ranging between 394 and 412. The FY2025 count of 479 represents a 19 percent increase over FY2024, but 42 of the 76 new positions were added at headquarters — partly to support a statutory expansion of DCSA’s entity vetting mission, not to put more boots on the ground for security reviews. Regional field personnel grew from 319 in FY2021 to 329 in FY2025, an increase of roughly 3 percent over four years.

The workforce shortfall in DCSA’s industrial security mission is not a new discovery. In June 2023, DCSA’s director sent a memorandum to the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security documenting that the agency was resourced to conduct required oversight of only 25 to 30 percent of the cleared industrial base. The memorandum offered three investment options — a 100 percent option, a 70 percent option, and a 30 percent option — each projecting the additional security violations, vulnerabilities, and undetected threats that could be identified at varying staffing levels. The 100 percent option, DCSA’s recommended proposal, called for adding 230 Industrial Security Representatives, 164 Information Systems Security Professionals, 25 field office chiefs, and 17 ISSP Team Leads across the Future Years Defense Program.