President Barack Obama issued Executive Order (E.O.) 13526 “Classified National Security Information” on December 29, 2009. Some portions of the order took effect immediately, and all others become effective 180 days later. There are numerous changes that this order dictates that all cleared contractors and cleared personnel should be aware of. One of these changes is that “Persons who apply derivative classification markings shall receive training in the proper application of the derivative classification principles of the order, with an emphasis on avoiding over-classification, at least once every 2 years. Derivative classifiers who do not receive such training at least once every 2 years shall have their authority to apply derivative classification markings suspended until they have received such training.” This is a new requirement, and may very well apply to some or all of your cleared employees.
What is meant by “Persons who apply derivative classification markings”? If you mark any item (e.g. document, email, disc, tape, etc.) to indicate that it is classified, then unless you’re
- the President or the Vice President of the United States
- one of the agency heads or officials designated by the President, or
- a United States Government official delegated this authority pursuant to Executive Order 13526…
then you are a person who applies derivative classification markings.
So do any of your cleared employees mark classified documents or other items? Then you’ll now have to provide them with training on the derivative classification principles of Executive Order 13526 at least every two years.
The Defense Security Service’s CDSE developed this Derivative Classifier Training that you can download.
The entire Executive Order (E.O.) 13526 can be viewed at this federal Web page.