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Security clearance
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For use by the United Nations, see Security Clearance (UN)
A security clearance is a status granted to individuals allowing them access to classified information, e.g., state secrets. The term "security clearance " is also sometimes used in private organizations that have a formal process to vet employees for access to sensitive information. A clearance by itself is normally not sufficient to gain access; the organization must determine that the cleared individual needs to know the information.
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Encyclopedia
For use by the United Nations, see Security Clearance (UN)
A security clearance is a status granted to individuals allowing them access to classified information, e.g., state secrets. The term "security clearance " is also sometimes used in private organizations that have a formal process to vet employees for access to sensitive information. A clearance by itself is normally not sufficient to gain access; the organization must determine that the cleared individual needs to know the information. No one is supposed to be granted access to classified information solely because of rank, position, or a security clearance.
Canada
Background
Government classified information is governed by the Treasury Board Government Security Policy (GSP), the Security of Information Act and Privacy Act. Only those that are deemed to be trustworthy and have been cleared are allowed to access sensitive information.
Checks includes basic demographic and criminal record check for all levels, and depending on individual appointment's requirement, credit checks, loyalty, and field checks might be conducted by the RCMP and/or CSIS.
Clearance is granted, depending on types of appointment, by individual Federal government departments/agencies or by private company security officers. Those who have contracts with Public Works and Government Services Canada are bound by the Industrial Security Program, a sub-set of the GSP.
In order to access protected information, one must have at least ERS. Reliability checks and assessments are conditions of employment under the Public Service Employment Act, and, thus, all Government of Canada employees have at least RS screening completed prior to their appointment. However, Government employees by Order-in-council are not subjected to this policy.
Clearances at the RS/ERS/C/S level are valid for 10 years, whereas TS is valid for 5 years. However, departments are free to requests their employees to undergo security screening anytime for cause. Because security clearances are granted by individual departments instead of one central government agency, clearances are inactivated at the end of appointment or when an individual transfers out of the department. The individual concern can then apply to reactivate and transfer the security clearance to his/her new position.
Hierarchy
Five levels of personnel screening exist:
Security Screening
Individuals who need to have RS/ERS because of their job or access to federal government assets will be required to sign the Personnel Screening, Consent and Authorization Form (TBS/SCT 330-23e).
- Reliability Status (RS)
- Basic reliability checks are done by verifying personal data, educational, and professional qualifications, data on previous employment and references. As well, a name check of criminal records may be required.
- This level of clearance does not grant the right to access to protected or classified information. Anyone who has access to unclassified or undesignated information/assets of the federal government requires this level.
- Enhanced Reliability Status (ERS)
- In addition to the basic reliability checks, enhanced reliability status includes a criminal records name check and may require a fingerprint check and a credit check.
- This level of clearance will grant the right to access protected A,B, & C information/assets on a need-to-know basis.
Security Assessment/Clearances
Individuals who need to have C/S/TS clearances because of their job or access to federal government assets will be required to sign the Security Clearance Form (TBS/SCT 330-60e).
- Confidential (Level I)
- In addition to the ERS checks, foreign employments, immediate relatives, and marriages/common-law relationships must be declared and be screened.
- This level of clearance will grant the right to access protected and classified information up to Confidential level on a need-to-know basis. Department Head have the discretion to allow for an individual to access Secret level information without higher level clearance on a case-to-case basis.
- Secret (Level II)
- Same as Confidential.
- This level of clearance will grant the right to access protected and classified information up to Secret level on a need-to-know basis. Department Heads have the discretion to allow for an individual to access Top Secret-level information without higher-level clearance on a case-to-case basis.
- Top Secret (Level III)
- In addition to the checks at the Secret level, foreign travels, assets, and character references must be given. Field check will also be conducted prior to granting the clearance.
- This level of clearance will grant the right to access all protected and classified information on a need-to-know basis.
Site Access
An additional category called 'Site Access' exists not for access to information purposes but for those that require physical access to sites or facilities designated by CSIS as areas "reasonably be expected to be targeted by those who engage in activities constituting threats to the security of Canada". Designated areas include Government Houses, official residences of government officials, Parliament, nuclear facilities, airport restricted areas, maritime ports, and any large-scale events that are sponsored by the federal government (i.e., 2010 Winter Olympics). The checks conducted are similar to those of a Confidential clearance.
Legal
Prior to granting access to information, an individual who has been cleared must sign a Security Screening Certificate and Briefing Form (TBS/SCT 330-47), indicating their willingness to be bound by several Acts of Parliament during and after their appointment finishes. Anyone who has been given a security clearance and releases protected/classified information without legal authority is in breach of trust under section 18(2) of the Security of Information Act with a punishment up to 2 years in jail. Those who have access to Special Operational Information are held at higher standards. The release of such information is punishable by law, under section 17(2) of the Security of Information Act, liable to imprisonment for life.
The Criminal Code of Canada, Section 748 (3) states that no person convicted of an offence under Section 121 (frauds on the Government), Section 124 (selling or purchasing office), or Section 418 (selling defective stores to Her Majesty), has, after that conviction, the capacity to contract with Her Majesty or to receive any benefits under a contract between Her Majesty and any other person or to hold office under Her Majesty unless a pardon has been granted. (This effectively prohibits granting of a Reliability Status to any such individual.)
United Kingdom
Clearance is checked at four levels, depending on the classification of materials that can be accessed — Counter-Terrorist Check (CTC), Baseline Check (BC), Security Check (SC), and Developed Vetting (DV). Security Check allows an individual long-term unsupervised access to protectively-marked SECRET material, whilst for TOP SECRET Developed Vetting is required. All Officers within the British Armed Forces are cleared to SC by default. Those with security clearance must usually sign the Official Secrets Act.
History
After America's entry into WWII, Britain changed its security classifications to match American classifications. Prior to the U.S.'s coming into the war, the classifications included the top classification: "Most Confidential". Documents were then shared with the U.S., when they entered the war. However, these British classifications were not understood in the U.S., and classified information appeared in the U.S. press. This spearheaded the uniformity in classification between the UK and the U.S.
United States
Hierarchy
A security clearance is, in general, granted to a particular level of clearance. The exception to this is levels above compartmentalized access, when an individual is given access to a particular type of data.
Controlled Unclassified Information
This is not a clearance, but rather a level at which information distribution is controlled. Controlled Unclassified is information that may be illegal to distribute. This information is available when needed by government employees such as Department of Defense (DoD) employees. It should not, however, be redistributed. An example of the type of information that may be controlled at this level is the operational details of a non-critical system.
Confidential
The simplest security clearance to get. This level typically requires a few weeks to a few months of investigation. A Confidential clearance requires a NACLC investigation which dates back 7 years on the person's record and must be renewed (with another investigation) every 15 years.
Secret
A Secret clearance, also known as Collateral Secret or Ordinary Secret, requires a few months to a year to fully investigate, depending on the individual's background. Some instances wherein individuals would take longer than normal to be investigated are many past residences, having residences in foreign countries, having relatives outside the United States, or significant ties with non-US citizens. Bankruptcy and unpaid bills as well as criminal charges will more than likely disqualify an applicant for approval. Poor financial history is the number-one cause of rejection, and foreign activities and criminal record are also common causes for disqualification. A Secret clearance requires a National Agency Check, a Local Agency Check, and a Credit investigation; it must also be reinvestigated every 10 years.
Top Secret
Top Secret is a more stringent clearance. A Top Secret, or "TS", clearance, is often given as the result of a Single Scope Background Investigation, or SSBI. Top Secret clearances, in general, afford one access to data that affects national security, counterterrorism/counterintelligence, or other highly sensitive data. There are far fewer individuals with TS clearances than Secret clearances. A TS clearance can take as few as 3-6 months to obtain, but more often takes 6-18 months, while sometimes taking up to 3 years to obtain. The SSBI must be renewed every 5 years.
Compartmented Information
As with TS clearances, Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) or Special access program (SAP) clearances are assigned only after one has been through the rigors of a Single Scope Background Investigation and a special adjudication process for evaluating the investigation. SCI access, however, is assigned only in "compartments." See Compartmentalization (intelligence). These compartments are necessarily separated from each other with respect to organization, so an individual with access to one compartment will not necessarily have access to another. Each compartment may include its own additional special requirements and clearance process. An individual may be granted access, or 'read-in' to a compartment for an extended or only short period of time.
A representative list of kinds of information that may require compartmented access, without using specific national terminology, includes:
- Cryptography
- Overhead reconnaissance from aircraft, UAVs, or satellites IMINT
- Communications intelligence, a subset of SIGINT
- Design or stockpile information about nuclear weapons
- Nuclear targeting.
Such compartmentalized clearances may be expressed as "John has a TS/SCI", whereby all clearance descriptors are spelled out verbally. For example, The US National Security Agency used to use specialized terms such as "Umbra", This classification is reported to be a compartment within the "Special Intelligence" compartment of SCI. The various NSA compartments have been simplified; all but the most sensitive compartments are marked "CCO", meaning "handle through COMINT channels only".
The US Department of Defense establishes, separately from intelligence compartments, special access programs (SAP) when vulnerability of specific information is exceptional and the normal criteria for determining eligibility for access applicable to information classified at the same level are not deemed sufficient to protect the information from unauthorized disclosure. The number of people cleared for access to such programs is typically kept low. Information about stealth technology, for example, often requires such access.
Jobs that require a clearance
A common misconception is that security clearance holders work as spies or in intelligence fields. Anyone with access to classified data requires a clearance at or higher than the level at which the data is classified. For this reason, security clearances are required for a wide range of jobs, from senior management to janitorial.
Jobs that require a security clearance can be found either as positions working directly for the Federal government or as authorized Federal contractors. Over time, more clearance jobs are being outsourced to contractors. Due to an overall shortage in security-cleared candidates and a long time frame to obtain the credentials for an uncleared worker, those with clearance are often paid more than their non-cleared equivalent counterparts.
Requirements for a clearance
The vetting process for a security clearance is usually undertaken only when someone is hired or transferred into a position that requires access to classified information. The employee is typically fingerprinted and asked to fill out a detailed life history form, including all foreign travel, which becomes a starting point for an investigation into the candidate's suitability. This process can include several types of investigations, depending on the level of clearance required:
- National Agency Check with Local Agency Check and Credit Check (NACLC). An NACLC is required for a Secret, L, and CONFIDENTIAL access. (See: Background check)
- Single Scope Background Investigation (SSBI). An SSBI is required for Top Secret, Q, and SCI access, and involves agents contacting employers, coworkers and other individuals. Standard elements include checks of employment; education; organization affiliations; local agencies; where the subject has lived, worked, or gone to school; and interviews with persons who know the individual. The investigation may include an NACLC on the candidate’s spouse or cohabitant and any immediate family members who are U.S. citizens other than by birth or who are not U.S. citizens.
- Polygraph. Some agencies may require polygraph examinations. The most common examinations are Counter Intelligence (CI) and Full-Scope (Lifestyle) polygraphs. While a positive SSBI is sufficient for access to SCI-level information, polygraphs are routinely administered for "staff-like" access to particular agencies.
If issues of concern surface during any phase of security processing, coverage is expanded to resolve those issues. At lower levels, interim clearances may be issued to individuals who are presently under investigation, but who have passed some preliminary, automatic process. Such automatic processes include things such as credit checks, felony checks, and so on. An interim clearance may be denied (although the final clearance may still be granted) for having a large amount of debt or having admitted to seeing a doctor for a mental health condition.
Investigations conducted by one federal agency are no longer supposed to be duplicated by another federal agency when those investigations are current within 5 years and meet the scope and standards for the level of clearance required. The high-level clearance process can be lengthy, sometimes taking a year or more. The long time needed for new appointees to be cleared has been cited as hindering U.S. presidential transitions.
The security clearance forms are available at http://www.gsa.gov/Portal/gsa/ep/formslibrary.do?formType=SF by searching for SF86 and SF85.
Security briefings
In the U.S., once the clearance is granted, the candidate is briefed on "the proper safeguarding of classified information and on the criminal, civil, and administrative sanctions that may be imposed on an individual who fails to protect classified information from unauthorized disclosure." He or she is also required to sign an approved non-disclosure agreement (e.g., form SF-312). High level clearances are reviewed periodically and any "adverse information" reports received at any time can trigger a review. When a clear persons leaves their job, they are often "debriefed" — reminded of their ongoing obligations to protect the information they were allowed to see.
Individuals who have had security clearances revoked
In the post World War II era there have been several highly publicized, and often controversial, cases of officials or scientists having their security clearances revoked, including:
See also
External links
Canada
UK
US
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