IMMIGRANT ALIEN.—Any person who
has been lawfully admitted into the United States
for permanent residence under an immigration
visa.
INACTIVE DUTY TRAINING.—Any train-
ing, instruction, or duty, as prescribed by the
Secretary of the Navy, performed by reservists on
inactive duty, with or without compensation. For
example, drills and approved correspondence
courses are part of this training.
INACTIVE STATUS.—The status of
members of the Standby Reserve who are offi-
cially placed on the Inactive Status List in ac-
cordance with regulations prescribed by the
Secretary of the Navy.
MARKING.—The physical act of indicating
on classified material the assigned classification,
changes in classification, downgrading and
declassification instructions, and any limitation
on the use of the classified information.
NATIONAL SECURITY.—The national
defense and foreign relations of the United States.
NEED TO KNOW.—The necessity for access
to, knowledge of, or possession of classified in-
formation in order to carry out official military
or other governmental duties. NOTE: Respon-
sibility for determining whether a person’s duties
require access to classified information and the
authorization to receive it rest upon the possessor
of the classified information and not upon the
prospective recipient.
OFFICIAL INFORMATION.—Information
which is owned by, produced for or by, or is
subject to the control of the United States
Government.
SECURITY.—A protected condition of
classified information which prevents unauthor-
ized persons from obtaining information of direct
or indirect military value. This condition results
from the establishment and maintenance of pro-
tective measures which enable a state of in-
violability from hostile acts or influence.
SECURITY VIOLATION.—Any failure to
comply with the regulations relative to the security
of classified material.
TRANSMISSION.—Movement involving the
actual transfer of custody and responsibility for
a document or other classified material from one
command to another command or other author-
ized addressee.
U N I T E D S T A T E S A N D I T S T E R -
RITORIES.—The 50 states; District of
Columbia; the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico;
the Territories of Guam, American Samoa, and
the Virgin Islands; the Trust Territory of the
Pacific Islands; the Canal Zone; and the Posses-
sions, Midway and Wake Islands.
UPGRADE.—TO determine that certain
classified information requires, in the interest of
national security, a higher degree of protection
against unauthorized disclosure than currently
provided, coupled with a changing of the
classification designation to reflect such higher
degree.
Classification Designations
Official information or material which re-
quires protection in the interest of national
security must be classified in one of three
categories depending upon the degree of
significance of the material. These categories are:
Top Secret, Secret, and Confidential. “For Of-
ficial Use Only” (FOUO) markings are not used,
to identify classified information. These markings
(FOUO) will be explained in another section of
this chapter. The next three sections will provide
an explanation and examples of Top Secret,
Secret, and Confidential material.
TOP SECRET.—Top Secret is the designa-
tion which will be applied only to information in
which the unauthorized disclosure could
reasonably be expected to cause EXCEP-
TIONALLY GRAVE DAMAGE to the national
security. Examples include:
1. Armed hostilities against the United States
or its allies.
2. Disruption of foreign relations vitally af-
fecting the national security.
3. The compromise of vital national defense
plans or complex cryptologic and communications
intelligence systems.
4. The revelation of sensitive intelligence
operations.
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