Security Executive Blog

Cover designed by Jeffrey W. Bennett. NISPOM available at Red Bike Publishing Why is the CLASSIFIED BY: Line so important? Let’s put it in perspective. Someone is responsible for classification decisions and that person may be accountable for their actions. This is also the person who can provide insight into security violation investigations and etc. The impact; this is the person to go to for research into the classification as well as who is accountable for classification decisions good or bad. Let’s face it; someone has to answer for their decisions. That’s why developing a process for deriving classified information is so important. So, we know the requirements in the BY line, all we now need is a tool or process to identify how to identify source documents for derivative classification. First, what tool do we have available to research derivative classification? According to DoD Security Clearance and Contracts guidebook, the NISPOM addresses the requirement to accoun...

Thanks for continuing to read so many articles about derivative classification. So far, we've written a lot about the derivative classification portion of NISPOM Change 1 . It's important to understand the sections with the largest amount of changes. After all, the products that cleared defense contractors provide constitute derivative classification. Failure to recognize and apply requirements can result in security violations and unmet contract requirements. We began with an article defining derivative classification, next, an article on who should provide derivative classification training, an article about the required training topics, and finally this article describing the new CLASSIFIED BY line. New changes to NISPOM include the addition of a CLASSIFIED BY Line to the derived document. This may seem confusing at first until the intent is made more clear. The CLASSIFIED BY Line should be thought of simply as who provided the derivative classification. Perhaps...

Change 1 to the National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual ( NISPOM ) outlines requirements for derivative classification. Where the original classification authority receives training on the same topics annually, NISPOM requires derivative classification once every two years. According to NISPOM derivative classifiers should be trained…in the proper application of the derivative classification principles, with an emphasis on avoiding over-classification, at least once every 2 years. .. not authorized to conduct derivative classification until they receive such training. Here’s the important part, no derivative classifier training , no work. Proper NISPOM training and documentation is the difference between performing on classified work and not being able to meet contractual requirements. Make sure your cleared contractors performing derivative classification responsibilities are trained to standard. The standard is listed below with a few ideas on how to meet each of the cr...