2022 Recent Updates
Shresta Chemarla avatar
Written by Shresta Chemarla
Updated over a week ago

December


As December wraps up, did you know that we are coming up on the Year of the Rabbit? In my humble opinion, it’s the best year in the zodiac. I should know! I was born in the Year of the Rabbit! What? Okay, maybe I’m a little biased… Enough zodiac fun facts (though I’m sure there will be more in the future), let’s get to our December updates!

What’s New:

  • When Admins go to delete an Access or Eligibility in Administration, they will now be prompted with pop-up. The pop-up states that the user should reach out to customer support to delete the access/eligibility.

  • ThreatSwitch will now inform you that your session has been idle, if you leave your ThreatSwitch screen untouched for two minutes.

  • In order to make the DISS import more smooth and user-friendly, it is now clearly shown that an Admin is skipping over users when hitting next on an import table!

  • Admins can now see when a Foreign Travel Report was submitted via the ‘Created’ column in Foreign Travel!

Fixed:

  • Users were unable to view Files when the File was attached to the task in the template of a Workflow. Once the ticket was assigned to the employee, the employee would receive an error rather than being able to view the File.

  • Certain customers leveraging single sign-on to log into ThreatSwitch would be taken to a blank page when trying to log in. Refreshing the page was the quick fix at the time, but this issue has now been fully resolved.

  • When leveraging a DISS import for Eligibilities and Accesses, the data table for mapping shows the Eligibilities/Accesses as blank - even though the CSV has that column filled. Hitting ‘Finalize’ would also leave the users’ eligibility/access blank in their profile.

  • When a Foreign Travel Custom Role is created, that role was unable to open and view a travel report. The role entailed the ability to View people, View and Edit travel, and view basic PII for people.

  • When uploading a file regarding a user not in the system, via DISS import, there was no error shown to the Admin doing the action. This bug has been fixed.

  • When pulling a Foreign Travel Report, the passport issue and passport expiration date were off by one day. The dates are accurate in the user’s profile, but, when a FTR Export CSV is pulled, the dates would show up as a day later.

  • A bug occurred in regards to which role permissions allowed for the user to complete a facility delete. The issue has now been resolved and the proper roles are the only ones capable of performing the facility delete action.

  • In the Foreign Travel CSV export, the ‘Country Exit Date’ was not populating within the CSV. This bug has now been resolved.

  • Multiple one-time passwords are being created at once when a user requests it for a password reset. The multiples are causing the validation to fail, which, in turn does not send the one-time password to the user.

  • The ‘Agency ID’ was not being saved when adding a Badge for a new user. However, this bug has now been fixed.

November


November is over so you know what that means, right? If you said Christmas, then you’re wrong. Well, you’re right but I’m referring to the Krampus Parade. If you don’t know who Krampus is, then Google him… sweet dreams ;)

What’s New:

  • Admins can now associate an individual’s Access with a Contract. This can be done by going to a user’s profile, going to Accesses, then selecting a Contract in the dropdown when adding a new Access.

  • When adding an Eligibility for a user, Admins now have the option to include the NDA date alongside this information. This field is not required but can be leveraged when adding or editing a user’s Eligibility.

  • Alongside the above change in Eligibility, a new field has been added for Investigation Status. The Investigation Status field is a dropdown which includes the following: Scheduled, Open, Open - Advanced NAC Completed, Open - NAC Completed, Discontinued, and Closed.

  • The main screen columns in Eligibilities have been updated to provide more relevant information and for a cleaner look. Previously, the columns went as followed: Code, Eligibility Name, Investigation, Closed, Reinvestigation, Granted By, and Granted On. Now, the updated columns are as follows: Eligibility, CE, Investigation, Status, Reinvestigation, and Eligibility Granted.

  • In Foreign Travel, Admins can currently download a PDF report of an individual’s travel report. This report has now been updated to include the new format headers to better match users’ needs based on the changing requirements.

  • Admins will now receive notifications when their personnel have completed a Task in Workflows. All Admins and Security Managers associated to that user’s facilities will receive a notification that the task has been completed.

  • Case sensitivity has been removed when importing Eligibilities from DISS. For example, SECRET and Secret will be registered as the same, rather than creating two different eligibility types.

Fixed:

  • Users are receiving an error when they are deleted and created as a new user with the same email prior to deletion. Specifically, this error has happened when the user had 2-factor authentication turned on initially. This bug has been fixed.

  • A user would click on a link from a ThreatSwitch email notification and would be sent to their Inbox, rather than the designated linked location.

  • The location of the Password Strength hint when resetting your password was showing up in the upper-right corner. It has now been placed below the password fields.

  • Employees were unable to view a File when it was attached to a Task in Workflows. Specifically, a Task from the template of the Workflow, rather than it being assigned after a ticket has been filled out. This issue has now been resolved.

October


It only took 11 movies and 44 years for Jamie Lee Curtis to defeat Michael Myers… not particularly efficient if you ask me. My movie opinions aside, let’s make our way to our October updates!

What’s New:

  • Within a user’s profile, under Travels, users can now see all Foreign Travel Reports if the user is either the traveler or just the submitter! If an Executive Assistant submits a report on their boss’s behalf, then they will see the report in their profile for the sake of visibility.

  • Users can now leverage the ‘Export CSV’ function within Foreign Travel to pull a CSV of all of the Foreign Travel reports in your instance. This will allow Admins to take the CSV and upload it into DISS, to fulfill new foreign travel requirements within DISS.

  • Foreign Travel now has new options for the reason a user is traveling. The options include Vacation, Official Trip for Government Purpose, Official Trip for Non-DoD Purpose, and Foreign Relationship Visit.

  • In a user’s profile, under Passport Details, additional details have been added. This includes dropdown fields for Passport Type and Passport Country.

  • The logos throughout ThreatSwitch have now been updated to accurately depict our company’s logo. Pretty!

  • Custom Roles will now encompass the ability to View and Manage Workflows abilities. Thus, you can grant users access to exclusively leverage Workflows abilities, even if their other permissions only have Employee parameters.

  • Admins now can now ask the ThreatSwitch Customer Success Team to copy over Workflows from our environment into yours. The Workflows we have are as follows: Affiliate Visit Request, New Employee - Onboarding, Security Clearance Request, Fair Credit File, PCL Request, FIERCe: Request for Information/Document Review, Reinvestigation Request, Public Trust Request, and SF-85 Request. Please message us through the blue chat bubble in the bottom right corner, if you would like us to send any Workflows your way!

  • Within Visit Requests, users can now filter for specific Contracts! This is attached to the fact that users can now select what Contract the visit is associated with when filling out a Visit Request.

  • Within Administration, in the Integration section, newly available Integrations will be presented in card format for users to browse and explore.

  • In Workflows, Employee roles can now view the descriptions created by Admins for Custom Fields. Admins can now provide instructions in those descriptions to ensure that their employees know what the field entails!

  • In Foreign Travel, the initial table seen better reflects a similar style and function as other tables in ThreatSwitch, such as Visit Requests. This includes an Actions dropdown when hovering over the Foreign Travel Report.

  • In a User’s profile in Travels, similarly to the note above, the table now better reflects a user’s travels similarly as their Visit Requests. Woohoo - clean, simple, and functional!

Fixed:

  • An error was occurring in regard to the History section and its dates. Items that were a couple of days old were inaccurately showing as the “last x-day”, which, in turn, makes it seem like the action was a week ago.

  • In a user’s profile, Accesses would be removed under their name in the upper-right-hand corner once you updated their Manager. This error has now been fixed.

  • In Contracts, an Admin-submitted comment appears as an unknown user to other Admins and Security Managers when viewing that comment. Although the Admin who submitted the comment can see the comment with their name, others cannot, as stated.

  • When a Form is completed within a Foreign Travel Report, the Form appears to be incomplete in the User’s profile under Forms. Though they completed it in the Foreign Travel Report, in Forms, the signature shows as 0/1 complete.

September


Do you remember the 21st night of September? Too corny? Probably… perhaps I shouldn’t quit my day job. Let’s stick to what I know: September updates below!

What’s New:

  • All users can now leverage their ‘Enter’ button (or ‘Return’ if you use a Macbook) to submit an action. For example, if you are logging into ThreatSwitch with your password, you can now hit ‘Enter’ and it’ll submit your password and take you to your inbox!

  • Users can now include what Contracts their Visit Requests are associated with. Under ‘Add a Visit Request’, there is a ‘Contract’ dropdown field available.

  • In Contracts, Admins can filter for the status of their company’s contracts. The ‘Status’ filter includes the following: active, inactive, pending, and expired.

  • Users’ VARs are now available to view within their profile! Plus, they can create a new Visit Request from their profile, as well.

Fixed:

  • An error occurred when updating a user’s manager in their profile, in which the access under their name disappeared. Now, you can update the user’s manager without undoing their access that is displayed under their name in the upper left-hand corner.

  • A bug occurred when trying to assign trainings to users via the ‘People’ section. Once an Admin selected ‘Assign Training’ and clicked on the ‘Training’ dropdown, no trainings would show as available. The issue has been resolved and Admins can see the list of Trainings again.

  • In Workflows, when creating a variety of Custom Fields then entering and saving a new Status cause the Custom Fields’ order to revert. Now, users can create Custom Fields and the fields will stay in the order you entered them.

  • In Workflows, when trying to add a Form(s) to a new or existing Workflow, the dropdown would show ‘no options’ for the Form pick list. This error has been resolved, and you can now select Forms from your TSW instance to add to a Workflow.

  • Tags would not properly save/apply to personnel with associated contracts. Thus, filtering for a specific Tag did not accurately display the users you’re looking for.

  • An error occurred when clicking on Badges and/or Assets from the Inbox’s sidebar. This issue is now resolved!

August


August is already here! Some might say that August will slip away into a moment in time... no Swifties here? Anyways, that's neither here nor there, read on to see what updates August brings to us!

What's New:

  • Everyone needs a fresh new look every so often! Our Welcome Emails now sport a brand new subject line. The subject is now "Welcome to ThreatSwitch", rather than "Your new account has been created" - neat! Also, other email types, such as Visit Request and Form emails have been updated aesthetically, as well.

  • Once a new user has been created, Admins can now immediately assign them a new training, ticket, etc., rather than waiting for the new user to populate in ThreatSwitch.

  • Custom Fields now has a new field type. Admins can now leverage 'Facility Select' as a data type! No need to use short text to ask users what CAGE they're a part of.

  • Workflows now allow custom fields with the same name to be used in multiple workflows. Originally, using 'Email' as a custom field in one workflow would cause users to not be able to name a custom field the same thing in a different workflow.

  • Employee users cannot view the 'Delete Task' action button when viewing a Ticket. The button existed for the Employee-side, but they were unable to use it because Employee roles are not authorized to delete tasks. Thus, the 'Delete Task' button has been removed completely for the Employee role.

  • In Forms, Admins were able to see a 'Form Reassign' button but it has now been removed. Forms will be receiving a bit of a redesign in the coming months, so it's not goodbye to the 'Form Reassign' button it's a see you later!

  • In the instance of an error, ThreatSwitch will now send users a 401 Permission Error (you know the one), rather than logging them out.

  • In regards to Multi-Signature Forms, only the first-signer will receive the 'you've been asked to complete a form' email. Once the first-signer signs the Form, the subsequent users will receive a "it's your turn" email!

  • In Forms, when a user is either completing or viewing a form, they will now receive an exit confirmation popup. This will ensure that the user truly wants to close the form so that they will not lose any changes they've made.

Fixed:

  • In Training, the 'CDSE Insider Threat Awareness Training' link has been updated! Users will now be sent to the current training website for this training by the CDSE.

  • In users' profiles, special characters would not properly save. For example, a place of birth requiring a special character would not display in the user's profile. Now, this invalid character usage has been fixed to allow special characters!

July


Happy July! The James Webb Space Telescope recently captured the deepest known photo of the universe. That's worth celebrating! Something else worth celebrating? Multi-signatures is officially launched within ThreatSwitch!

What's New:

  • Forms requiring multiple signatures can currently be assigned via a person's Forms section of their profile or via the Signatures tab found in Administration -> Forms. Additionally, multiple signature forms can be facilitated via Tickets and Tasks if you are leveraging our new Workflows module. To note, forms requiring multiple signatures cannot currently be assigned in bulk.

  • New Custom Field types are now available. By leveraging the General Select, users can define the drop-down selections. User Select is in reference to People drop-down/user list. Finally, Admins can leverage custom checkboxes within Custom Fields.

  • In Foreign Travel, under 'Pre-Travel Briefing', the website to the NCSC "Safe Travels" Counter Intelligence Tips has been linked.

  • An 'Arrival Country' field has been added to the Rail section when reporting foreign travel. Similarly, users can include a 'Port Country' when filling out a Cruise itinerary. ISL 2021-02 SEAD 3 requires 'Countries Visited' as a data element to be reported.

  • When defining cruise details, within Foreign Travel, users are now able to 'Add Another Boat'. Perfect for that multi-stop, European cruise you're taking this summer!

Fixed:

  • An issue has been resolved that caused users with the role Employee to be logged out when attempting to edit a Visit Request that already has an assigned reviewer.

  • An issue has been resolved regarding users with the Employee role attempting to edit their Foreign Travel Reports after a reviewer had been assigned.

June


NCMS in Minneapolis was great...albeit very hot. Next year's event is in New Orleans - start planning and practicing your putting skills now!

What's New:

  • People are safely traveling again and visiting others! We're excited and hope you are too. With that being said, knowing you're going to have visitors, everyone can now add multiple visitors to an Incoming Visit Request!

    • For those of you we missed at NCMS in Minneapolis, we'd love to connect! Let us know what events you plan on attending.

  • Have a Task assigned to you? We've made improvements to make sure those assigned to tasks have the correct level of access to a Ticket in order to complete the task.

  • All users can now add additional attachments to digital forms. For instance, those pesky documents still requiring a quill and ink set: complete as much of the document digitally, download, apply that wonderful wet signature, and then upload to ThreatSwitch -- all encapsulated in a single location.

  • Did you know you can import Access Brief Date(s) via a DISS Import? Simply add a column titled “Access Brief Date” to your .csv data and the date(s) will be populated automatically.

Fixed:

  • An issue has been resolved that caused the From Cage Code filter in Visit Requests to return no results.

May


In the spirit of May, we are growing! The name May originated from the Latin word Maius, named after the Greek goddess of growth, Maia. More exciting news to come!

What's New:

  • Tired of re-entering information for Outgoing Visit Requests? You can now produce Visit Authorization Letter's directly within ThreatSwitch!

  • Words Matter. The Reports menu icon has been renamed to Analytics.

  • You asked and we listened! Various improvements have been made to our new Workflows management hub including custom role controls and the ability to pre-define the assignee of a workflow's tickets.

  • Too many ducks to get in a row? We can help. You can now view and manage all of your Tasks in a single location. We'll also provide a reminder in your TSW Inbox for Tasks that are due.

  • Easily identify your laggards for specific Training courses by leveraging filters to derive more precise completion percentages (e.g. Training completion rate of a course for a specific CAGE).

  • For those smaller devices, we optimized our menu to fit accordingly.

  • Tired of scrolling through lists looking for your name? Easily select yourself throughout ThreatSwitch using the Myself option in the top of personnel drop-downs.

  • Time for some Spring clean-up? You can now bulk delete Action Requests and filter requests via their Submitted Status.

  • The Contracts module now includes a field for Department.

Fixed:

  • An issue has been resolved that prevented the Active filter in the personnel tab of Facilities from working correctly.

  • An issue has been resolved that prevented the downloading of completed Digital Forms.

  • The Request Signature action button found under a user's profile in the Forms section has been re-added.

  • An issue has been resolved that caused Tickets to display an incorrect 'Created On' date in the Inbox.

  • An issue has been resolved that prevented the Description field of a File to display correctly.

  • An issue has been resolved that caused the Hired Date field in a user's profile to populate the incorrect date (i.e. Hired Date minus 1 day) when imported.

April


There's more to April than April Fool's. Check out what we've been up to!

What's New:

  • ThreatSwitch Workflows is a collaboration-centric, customizable workflow management hub that allows ThreatSwitch Employees like yourself to create tickets for everything moving through your organizations defined workflows, and collaborate within ThreatSwitch to get tasks done. Reach out to your Customer Success Manager or go here to learn more.

  • Colors don't exist. They're all in your head. But we made some changes anyways to our icons and other areas throughout the application.

  • Actions Requests can now be filtered by their Submitted Status, enabling you to view requests that have been submitted or are still in a draft state.

  • Need to do some Spring cleaning? You can now bulk delete Action Requests.

  • We updated FOCI Logging in Reportable Information to better align with today's procedures.

  • The Attachments component found throughout ThreatSwitch received a makeover consolidating Files, Links, and where applicable Digital Forms.

Fixed:

  • An issue has been resolved that caused the status of an Action Request to change when assigning a Reviewer.

  • An issue has been resolved that caused the History section of a Visit Request to not populate appropriately.

  • On a person's profile, an issue has been resolved that prevented the addition of Badges as well as the ability to request a signature via a digital form.

  • An issue has been resolved that inhibited the downloading of completed digital forms.

March


Big things are coming soon. Stay tuned!

What's New:

  • You asked and we heard you, just like the U.S Government and Daylight Savings. You can now report on Accesses and their affiliated Contracts to get a clear picture of your personnel's level of Access as it pertains to specific contracts.

  • Did you know Donald Duck's middle name is Fauntleroy? Me either, but now you can easily identify users that share the same first and last names via the addition of middle initials to user drop-downs throughout ThreatSwitch.

Fixed:

  • An issue with Training email notifications not being sent for specific Organizations upon assignment.

  • An issue has been resolved that caused analytic Reports to be cut short on the page.

  • An issue has been resolved that caused a user's Primary Facility to be re-added after it was removed by an Administrator/Security Manager.

  • An issue has been resolved that caused the status of an Action Request to be set to Draft when assigning a Reviewer requiring resubmission.

February


Just as day follows night and winter gives way to spring, so have we updated ThreatSwitch.

What's New:

  • Zoom meetings might be old news, but ThreatSwitch has a new way to log Web Meetings! In FOCI Logging, under Reportable Information, you can now select Web Meetings or Fax in the Communication Method dropdown.

  • Say pagination five times fast - now! Tough, right? Do you know what's no longer tough, though? Navigating the pages of any and all tables stored in ThreatSwitch!

  • Tired of wearing your Zoom shirt and sending emails? The Contracts module now includes Comments to enable collaboration amongst your team on contracts, directly within ThreatSwitch.

  • No one likes long receipts, so we have improved Asset Transfer Receipts to fit into a single page when encompassing limited assets.

  • In an effort to better utilize limited space, like many of us throughout the pandemic, we have made some visual updates to the Search bar, Filters, and Exporting data (formerly known as Create Report).

  • They're back! Tags have been added back to People's profiles

  • Don't have a Profile Photo? We have you covered. We'll display your initials in your avatar while you work to get that perfect picture.

Fixed:

  • Nothing to see here

January


January is named after the Roman god Janus (not to be confused with Janice, your high school English teacher).

What's New:

  • Workflow is no longer! We have now updated the language to reflect the Employee view to close the gap between Administrators and Employees. Workflow is now Notify in your ThreatSwitch account. No functionality has changed just a little name change!

  • Trainings can now be bulk assigned. You can assign one training to multiple or you can assign multiple trainings to multiple people! Take a look at the People section for instructions on how to do so. Neat, huh?

  • Foreign Travel requests can now be found within a person's profile. Look for the Travels section when viewing your own or someone else's profile. Try not to become envious of your colleagues' frequent trips to Aruba.

  • Foreign Travel requests are now sorted by their Created date, displaying by default in order from the newest to oldest requests.

  • The DISS Import wizard now captures the Continuous Evaluation (CE) Enrolled Date for Eligibilities automatically.

  • The quick view into a user's Accesses, found in a user's profile under their name as well as in the Contracts -> Personnel tab, now only displays Accesses that have an active Brief Date and no future Debrief Date.

  • An improvement has been made for users with the Employee role, hiding the DISS Imported column found in a user's Accesses.

  • An improvement has been added to the Imports page detailing who and how the import (i.e. Import Wizard or via API) was created via the Created By column. We know this sounds boring, but it's really quite useful sometimes.

  • An improvement has been made for Outgoing Visit Requests, separating the Submitted to DISS and Submitted to Customer into two separate statuses. Previously one status (Submitted to DISS/Customer).

  • An improvement has been made to Asset Transfer Receipts to now include signature blocks for Destruction attestation.

  • The role Assistant Security Manager is no longer available. Existing users with the role will be unaffected. The Security Manager role provides equivalent rights and permissions throughout ThreatSwitch, and this in no way should be taken as an insult if your job title is Assistant Security Manager.

Fixed:

  • An issue has been resolved that prevented users from submitting an outgoing Visit Request.

  • An issue has been resolved that prevented filtering by CAGE code in People.

  • An issue has been resolved that prevented accurate searching when using capital letters in the Files section of Administration.

  • An issue has been resolved that prevented the downloading of certain files on Action Requests.

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