The Military Counterintelligence Service as a Pioneer

Target audience for this article:

Chief Security Officer (CSO), Chief Risk Officer (CRO), Head of Corporate Security / Information Security, Head of Communications / PR (at large corporations, since reputation protection is also a matter of corporate communications), Compliance & Risk Management Officers

 

Supported Constitutionality Review

A recent report by SPIEGEL highlights just how significantly recruitment processes are changing:

Since July, the Military Counter-Intelligence Service (MAD) has been using software to screen Bundeswehr applicants for loyalty to the Constitution. Whereas employees used to have to manually comb through social media channels, forums, and digital traces for months, the system now analyzes publicly available data in just a few days.

What the Bundeswehr refers to officially as the “Assisted Loyalty to the Constitution Screening” illustrates a trend that has long since become increasingly relevant for companies as well: pre-employment screening based on publicly available information (OSINT).

Why Manual Background Checks Are Reaching Their Limits

Whether in critical infrastructure, IT security, or key positions with a high level of responsibility—companies need to know who they’re bringing on board. Risks such as extremist views, ties to criminal networks, or the disclosure of sensitive data make thorough pre-employment screenings essential.

However, the reality of day-to-day HR work often looks different:

• Increased time required: Manual research on social media and open data sources takes hours, without any guarantee of completeness.
• Hidden signals: Risk-relevant patterns—such as covert symbolism, codes, or connections to problematic groups—are easily overlooked by human reviewers without specialized knowledge.
• Volume of Applications: High numbers of applicants quickly lead to bottlenecks in the recruiting process if every background check is conducted manually.

People remain in the driver's seat

The SPIEGEL article highlights a key point that is also crucial for the free market: The software does not make automatic decisions. It does not act as a digital judge that arbitrarily rejects job applications.

Instead, the system filters out suspicious patterns from publicly available data. If a profile shows signs of suspicious activity—such as linked code words, pixelated appearances in relevant circles, or group memberships—the application compiles these clues into a clear and concise dossier. Only then do trained experts review the specific case and make the final decision. This relieves the teams of the time-consuming task of searching for clues, without replacing human judgment.

Structured Analysis in the HR Department with Fivecast ONYX

This is precisely where our approach for businesses comes into play. With Fivecast ONYX, we offer a solution that supports HR departments and security managers in conducting risk analyses as part of the pre-employment screening process.
Fivecast ONYX systematically searches open data sources for defined risk indicators and presents the results in a clear and organized manner. Instead of manually sifting through countless platforms, the HR team receives a clear picture of potentially relevant security risks—objective, data-driven, and transparent.

An overview of the benefits of pre-employment screening:

1. Time savings: The research process is drastically shortened, allowing decisions to be made more quickly and without long wait times.
2. Accuracy: Risk factors are identified based on specific criteria that are often overlooked in manual research.
3. Objectivity and transparency: Results are analyzed based on established risk patterns, making decisions more transparent and replacing gut feelings with facts.

A Modern Standard for Personnel Selection

The use of intelligent analysis tools at MAD demonstrates that automated support in risk assessment is not a future scenario, but rather a tried-and-true part of everyday practice.

For companies, this means that pre-employment screening need not be a staffing bottleneck, nor does it have to remain superficial.

 

Takeaway

If you’d like to learn how you can pragmatically integrate our service or the Fivecast ONYX product into your existing HR and screening processes, please feel free to contact us. We’ll show you in a brief demonstration how risk analyses can be conducted efficiently and reliably.