National Security Classification Markings: the thought behind it

At one point in my career, I was the lead person in the federal government with responsibility for the National Security Classification Markings Handbook, which is the federal government’s overarching guide to how to mark classified documents.

As national security classification becomes more a topic of news attention, here is some context to consider:

• Classification markings are a communication tool.

• The reason the national security classification system requires markings is to communicate to recipients of information that the information they are receiving needs to be protected on authorized national security grounds.

• It costs the government and cleared contractors that support the government a massive amount of money to protect classified materials.

  • In FY 2016 the US government spent approximately $2.63 billion on just the physical security of classified material.

  • In FY 2016 contractors supporting the US government spent approximately $1.47 billion on security of classified material.

    • Note: FY 2016 is being used because it is the most recent reported cost data available.

  • Ultimately it is the taxpayers paying these costs.

  • The less the government classifies and the sooner it declassifies information the more money is saved.

    • A significant factor here is the high cost of storage.

    • In FY 2016 the US government spent only $102.58 million on declassification.

    • This lower cost occurs even though the current declassification process requires significantly more manpower than the process to classify information.

    • In addition to cost, there are other reasons to keep the information that the government classifies to a minimum. The biggest of these is that in a democracy voters need to know what their government does in order to make informed voting decisions. It should take the gravest reasons to restrict the government’s release of information.

• Think of every aspect of marking classification as a tool to communicate. For example markings placed on documents at the time of initial classification:

  • Banner marking of overall classification level at top and bottom

    • these are the large classification markings at the top and bottom…so possessor/recipients know they need to protect it and with what type of protections.

  • Paragraph markings

    • these are markings such as (TS) for Top Secret, (S) for Secret, (C) for Confidential, (U) for Unclassified, (S/NOFORN) for Secret No Foreign, etc that are placed in front of each paragraph, bullet point, graphic, picture, etc…so the possessor/recipients know the specific information that is classified — including at what level — so if they convey that information on to others, only those with the appropriate clearance levels are given access to that information.

  • “Classified by” block with:

    • name and position of classifier…to go back to if there are later questions about the classification status

    • reason/source of the classification decision…to trace under what authority the classification decision was made

    • declassification date…to enable automatic declassification and save the government the massive costs of reviewing each document…note: it is generally the situation that as information ages it becomes less sensitive, thus with rare exceptions information is declassified after 25 years or requires human review to keep it classified.

• Declassification markings are an essential part of the communications tool of classification markings.

  • If documents are not marked with the declassification markings at the time they are declassified, then the classification markings miscommunicate how the documents should be handled adding cost and interfering with authorized information sharing and/or release.

  • The only time documents are not marked at the time of declassification is if a bulk declassification takes place where it is determined a whole group of records can be declassified. In this case the box the documents are in might be marked declassified, with the individual documents marked at the time the records are next accessed as this can save government resources.

  • The key remains that communicating a declassification decision is a core part of the functioning of the classification and declassification system.