At DAS, citizens and foreigners living in Colombia could obtain their background records, a common requirement for a variety of transactions and services involving both state and private institutions.

The events that followed Jorge Eliécer Gaitán's assassination in 1948 provoked a violent riot in Bogotá, now known as the Bogotazo, which also started a further ten years of violence in all of Colombia known in Colombian history as La Violencia.

[5] The DAS formally became the Security Organization of the State as an official, technical, professional and apolitical institution during the administration of President César Gaviria Trujillo, by means of Decree 2110 of 1992.

[4] On December 6, 1989, at 7:30 AM, the Medellín Cartel detonated a bus loaded with 1,100 pounds (500 kg) of explosives directly in front of the headquarters building in downtown Bogotá.

It was also the second time the cartel attempted to kill DAS director Miguel Maza Márquez using an explosive device; the first attack on May 30, 1989, left four dead and 37 wounded.

Unspecified sources accused vice-director José Miguel Narváez of allegedly leaking this tape as part of a setup in order to discredit DAS Director Jorge Noguera.

[10] According to the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers' Collective, Noguera was only released due to procedural defects; however the charges against him, conspiracy to commit a crime, misuse of authority through an arbitrary and unjust act, and improper use of classified or secret information, may still be prosecuted.

[11] On October 24, 2008, the head of the DAS Maria del Pilar Hurtado stepped down from her post after allegations that the agency had conducted surveillance on Senator Gustavo Petro and other left-wing political opponents of President Álvaro Uribe Vélez.