List of U.S. security clearance terms

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Security clearance levels often appear in employment postings for Defense related jobs. Employers generally prefer to hire people who are already cleared to access classified information at the level needed for a particular job or contract, because security clearances can usually take up to a year to obtain^[1].

Due to the nature of security classifications and clearances, often people incorrectly identify their clearances by a combination of actual clearance level, additional access controls, caveats, and the organization who granted them clearance^{[citation needed]}. In addition, different organizations within the Federal government use different terminology and lettering, as is discussed below. In general, most employers look for candidates that hold an active DoD collateral clearance or a blanket TS/SCI-cleared (Top Secret / Sensitive Compartmented Information) individual that has successfully completed a counterintelligence (CI) or full-scope polygraph (FSP).

Some items on are based on a list compiled by a nonauthoritative source on the Internet.

Security Levels

Security clearances can be issued by many United States government agencies, including the Department of Defense (DoD), the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Energy (DoE), the Department of Justice, and the Central Intelligence Agency. DoE clearances include the “L,” and “Q” levels. DoD issues more than 80% of all clearances. There are three levels of DoD security clearances^[2]:

• Confidential
• Secret
• Top Secret
• Information above level 'Top Secret' is on a case by case basis and identified only by code words

NOTE: Unclassified (U) is a valid security description, especially when indicating unclassified information within a document classified at a higher level. For example, the title of a Secret report is often unclassified, and must be marked as such.

For access to information at a particular classification level, individuals must have been granted access by the sponsoring government organization at that or a higher classification level, and have a need-to-know the information. The government also supports access to sensitive compartmented information (SCI) and special access programs (SAPs) in which access is determined by need-to-know. These accesses require increased investigative requirements before access is granted^{[citation needed]}.

Additional Classifications

Some categories of information, while possibly but not necessarily needing special access control, by their nature may require extra security education, special handling procedures, et cetera. These are known as caveats:

• FOUO - For Official Use Only *
• COMSEC - Communications Security *
• CNWDI - Critical Nuclear Weapon Design Information
• NOFORN - Not Releasable to Foreign Nationals (access restricted to U.S. citizens) *
• WNINTEL - Warning Notice - Intelligence Sources and Methods Involved [1]
• CRYPTO - Cryptographic *

Obtaining Clearances

Prior to being granted any clearances or accesses, a person is investigated by the Government. Depending on the level of clearance and access the person needs, the Government undertakes one of the following investigations:

• LAC - Local Agency Check
• ENTNAC - Entrance National Agency Check (typically for new military recruits)
• MBI - Minimum Background Investigation (Typically reserved for public trust positions and/or when there is a break in federal service)
• NAC - National Agency Check
• NACLC (National Agency Check with Local Agency Check and Credit Check) *
• SSBI - Single Scope Background Investigation *
• SBPR - SSBI Periodic Reinvestigation
• PPR - Phased Periodic Reinvestigation
• SBI - Special Background Investigation
• EBI - Extended Background Investigation

Certain accesses require one to undertake one or more polygraphs:

• Polygraph - Counterintelligence Scope (CI, CI Poly)
• Polygraph - Full Scope / Lifestyle (FSP, FS, LS, Lifestyle Poly)

An incomplete list of the more popular and possible sets of security clearances is below:

• Confidential
• Secret (Collateral)
• Top Secret (Collateral)
• DOE - C, L, Q
• FBI (equivalent to TS Collateral)
• NATO Secret
• Position of Public Trust
• Yankee White
• Top Secret/SCI

SCI clearances are granted only for those approved for Top Secret clearances. Additional common compartments:

• Gamma (G), subcompartment of SI
• HUMINT Control System (HCS), protects human intelligence

In general, employees do not publish the individual compartments for which they are cleared. While this information is not classified, specific compartment listings may reveal sensitive information when correlated with an individual's resume. Therefore, it is sufficient to declare that a candidate possesses a TS/SCI clearance with a polygraph.

References

1. ^ "Army.com Security Clearance". http://www.army.com/resources/item/786. 
2. ^ "Security Clearance FAQ". http://www.clearancejobs.com/security_clearance_faq.pdf. 

http://www.clearancejobs.com/security_clearance_faq.pdf - "Security Clearance Frequently Asked Questions"
http://www.fbi.gov/clearance/securityclearance.htm - "Security Clearance Process for State and Local Law Enforcement"
https://www.dss.mil/GW/ShowBinary/DSS/psco/ps_faqs.html - "The Industrial Personnel Security Clearance Process Frequently Asked Questions"
http://www.army.com/resources/item/786 - "What is a security clearance?"
http://www.fas.org/sgp/othergov/dhs-sbu.html - "Safeguarding Sensitive But Unclassified Information"

The U.S. intelligence community - By Jeffrey Richelson http://books.google.com/books?id=BaeJNdRySPoC&pg=PA427&lpg=PA427&dq=Special+Intelligence+-+Talent+Keyhole&source=bl&ots=US75G6_WKD&sig=I80dvjRICxxVTry0_R2Sx_UYv0s&hl=en&ei=_4W2SoiRN4GkswPhoLCeDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5#v=onepage&q=Special%20Intelligence%20-%20Talent%20Keyhole&f=false