That is, disclosure of Secret information would cause about ten times as much damage as disclosure of Confidential information, and disclosure of Top Secret information would cause about ten times as much damage as disclosure of Secret information. * The discussion assumes that the three classification levels - Confidential, Secret, and Top Secret - differ from each other by about an order of magnitude (factor of 10). Principles are proposed for assigning classification levels. The following sections of this chapter provide discussions of the three classification levels, especially with respect to scientific or technical information. It would be rare that the information disclosure benefits would approximate those significantly higher serious or extremely grave damage levels. When information disclosure risks are at the serious or extremely grave levels associated with Secret or Top Secret information, respectively, then the classification levels would usually be expected to be determined solely by those damages. Therefore, the difficult balancing situations will usually occur when information disclosure damage is at the Confidential level because then the benefits and risks are expected to be about equal. * Generally, the benefits of information disclosure are expected to be on the order of magnitude of the Confidential level of damage. The appropriate classification level would be expected to usually be determined by the information disclosure risks because those risks largely determine the magnitude of the net damage that could be caused by such disclosure. However, there is very little available guidance to help determine which classification level should be assigned to classified information (i.e., whether it should be classified as Confidential, Secret, or Top Secret). If disclosure of information causes net damage to the nation, then that information should at least be classified at the Confidential level. Previous chapters that discussed classification principles emphasized the need to balance the risks of information disclosure (damage to national security) against the benefits of having the information unclassified. Section 1.1(b) of EO 12356 states that "except as otherwise provided by statute, no other terms shall be used to identify classified information." (3) "Confidential" shall be applied to information, the unauthorized disclosure of which reasonably could be expected to cause damage to the national security. (2) "Secret" shall be applied to information, the unauthorized disclosure of which reasonably could be expected to cause serious damage to the national security. (1) "Top Secret" shall be applied to information, the unauthorized disclosure of which reasonably could be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security. (a) National Security Information (hereinafter "classified information") shall be classified at one of the following three levels: 2 Those levels are used both for NSI and atomic energy information (RD and FRD). classification of information system has three classification levels - Top Secret, Secret, and Confidential - which are defined in EO 12356. Clearly defined classification levels are essential to an effective classification system. A classification level indicates the relative importance of classified information to national security and thereby determines the specific security requirements applicable to that information. Security Classification of Information: Table of ContentsĪ classification level must be assigned to information when that information is determined to be classified. Security Classification of Information, volume 2 (Quist), Chapter Seven FAS |
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