Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO)

Classification Management

The Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) logo

Classification management involves the identification, marking, safeguarding, declassification, and destruction of classified national security information generated in Government and industry.  It encompasses the life-cycle management of classified information from original classification to declassification.  The three levels of classification are Top Secret, Secret, and Confidential.  Unclassified is a marking used to denote information that does not meet the requirements for classification.

There are two ways to classify information – original classification and derivative classification.  Original classification is the initial determination that information requires, in the interest of national security, protection against unauthorized disclosure.  Derivative classification is the incorporating, paraphrasing, restating, or generating in new form information that has already been classified.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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