Largely prescribed in a series of successive presidential executive orders (EO) issued over the past 50 years, security classification policy and procedure provide the rationale and arrangements for designating information officially secret for reasons of national security, and for its declassification as well. President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued the first EO in 1940. Contents of this report: (1) Background; (2) Clinton¿s EO 12958 as Issued: Prescribing Declassification; Controversial Areas; Classification Challenges; A Balancing Test; Program Direction; New Organizations; (3) Bush¿5s Amendments to EO 12958; (4) Obama¿s Review of EO 12958; () Obama Revokes EO 12958 and Issues a New EO.

Recently, there have been multiple high-profile incidents involving the release of classified government info. Perhaps most prominent was Wikileaks.org's unauthorized publication of more than 600,000 classified DoD documents. Such incidents have further heightened congressional, media, and public interest in classified info. policy. This report provides info. on classified info. policy, which also is called security classification policy and national security classification info. policy. It discusses the history, costs, and agencies assigned roles in classified info. policy. The report focuses on Executive Order 13526, which establishes much of the current policy, and it identifies possible oversight issues for Congress. Illus. A print on demand report.

With the end of the Cold War, the Department of Energy is engaged in a review of its policies regarding the classification of information. In 1994, the Secretary of Energy requested the assistance of the National Research Council in an effort to "lift the veil of Cold War secrecy." This book recommends fundamental principles to guide declassification policy. It also offers specific suggestions of ways to improve public access while protecting truly sensitive information.

This glossary provides a central resource of definitions most commonly used in Nat. Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) information security publications and in the Committee for National Security Systems (CNSS) information assurance publications. Each entry in the glossary points to one or more source NIST publications, and/or CNSSI-4009, and/or supplemental sources where appropriate. This is a print on demand edition of an important, hard-to-find publication.