If you need to ask, you don’t need to know. 
Crypto as I’ve seen it simply refers to coding/decoding and/or analysis of multiple pieces & types of information to “decrypt” or comprehend “what it all means.”
Does having a Top Secret clearance give you access to Secret and Confidential items?
Yes, having a security clearance allows you access to information at or below your clearance level. If you are TS, you can access Secret info just the same. But it doesn’t work the other way,m of course.
Also, documents that containg various degrees of classification are marked on the front with the highest classification level that is contained within them. Top Secret documents may contain a lot of Secret material, and will generally be mostly unclassified. But the front is just marked “Top Secret”
Yes, but you have to have a ‘need to know’ the information.
Confdential, secret and top secret simply refer to the potential of the information to damage an organization’s ability to function. In the case of the US Gubmint, compromise of too much TS information could impair our ability gather and disperse information. Stuff in this category would be ANY reference to our HumanIntelligence contact(s) in Baghdad–even if it’s a joke e-mail that you and I have seen. In that case, it’s not the content of the message, but the knowlege that the sender has e-mail (which can be traced to a phone source) has a good understanding of this type of humor (indicating familairity with the recipient’s culture)…enough information to get this guy “found.”
So If I have a TS clearance for information about operation and specs of US Military radio equipment, I can’t just roll into a secured area and peruse all the confidential stuff (personnel records, for instance) they have, because I don’t need to know that kind of stuff–my job is radios.
Conversely, If I have a Secret clearance, I can’t get at the raw TS stuff no matter HOW important it is to me or my job–I’ll need more clearance, special dispensation or a properly sanitized edition of the document I want.
There’s always a “need to know” with intelligence information – just because I have a “Secret” clearance for Project A doesn’t mean I get to go snoop around the “Secret” data for Project B.
According to WWII historian Stephen Ambrose, there was at least one instance where there did exist a clearance higher than “Top Secret”. From his book D-Day, speaking of Operation Overlord:
Personally, I’d be surprised if TS is currently the highest termed clearance.
An anecdote that illustrates the silly level this can be taken to (if I may):
As part of an old job, one of my duties was to periodically travel to foreign posts and change all the combinations on their safes, crack open the ones that had forgotten combos, etc.
On one occasion, I had a secretary open all of her safes and asked her for the combinations (in order to change to a new combo, it helps to have the old; but it isn’t required). She replied, in a rather snotty tone, that she couldn’t give me that information because it was “top secret”. I had a TS clearance and was authorized for the work by the security officer, but didn’t feel like arguing the issue with someone with a 'tude.
So I took the back off the lock, zeroed out the wheels, and set a new combo without her help. Then I slammed the drawer, spun it off and informed her that the combo was now changed.
“So what’s the new combo?” she queries. “Can’t tell you; top secret” replied I, and left the office. I managed to avoid her and her irate boss for the better part of two hours, but the lesson taught was worth the flak I received.
Chandeleur “Bigot” like “Ultra” etc. mentioned before is just a subdevision of Top Secret that is used to define a group with a particular ‘need to know’ status.
I concur. There realy doesn’t need to be a higher clearance that TS. Like I said, the only difference between C, S & TS is the degree to which the information can cause trouble. TS information is defined something like “Potential for extreme damage to <<Insert organization name here>> ability to perform job functions.”
As has been noted, there are different types of information that apply to all or some of the 3 levels (like Ultra & Bigot). The actual structure that I’m referring to is … not for public disclosure … those who know about it can back me up. So what you end up with are clearances like “TS Bigot” which apparently can access ANY information available upon showing a need to know. “TS Duck”: can access extremely sensitive information pertaining to water; “TS Owl”: can access extremely sensitive information regarding rodent populations; “TS Monkey”: can access extremely sensitive information about banana plantations in Alaska…etc. and then you get other types of clearance that allow multiple compartments while still restricting others.
Again, it is in breach of one’s clearance to discuss not only the content of the document, but also to discuss the actual categories and what they refer to (I made up Duck, Owl & monkey). I think someone mentioned “TS Umbra” earlier on. This is one such compartment that was made famous by good old Tom Clancy in 6 foot high letters on the silver screen. IF Umbra really is a compartment, this should not be known by anyone who is not able to access that compartment. I think that even discussing the concept of compartments is CONFIDENTIAL–not particularly damaging, but it makes it unecessarily simpler for the whole structure to be decoded by the Bad Guys.
So some of us are being bad.
Might just be the theorist in me, and you folks know much more about all this than I do, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a higher security clearance level that has existed.
Even if the only people that knew about it were the one who had the actual clearance.
If there is one I never ran into it.
I was (in my first gig out of school) cleared Top Secret for State Department stuff as I was handling and processing documents coming in from all the embassies around the world. I also had ‘escort priviliges’ which meant I could escort people into sensitive areas on my own say so.
Curiously, at the same time Lady Chance was a military contractor (as she is now) with ‘Secret’ clearance for military stuff.
Some of our conversations at dinner:
Me: “So, how was work? What did you do?”
Her: “Fine and I can’t tell you. How 'bout you?”
Me: “The same. And I can’t tell you, either.”
Jonathan, have youhad a look at the MI5 website? One of the things they say is that you should confide in your SO. Of course, I’m in the UK. And have no SO.
And Matchka, if you’re thinking of The Cardinal of the Kremlin, it’s Delta, not Umbra.
I don’t think so… the idea of SCIs and SAPs are easily available public information. Not that there aren’t websites that post information they shouldn’t, but i’d say that any Government agency that puts out such information isn’t breaking any laws.
**This page ** gives a good treatment of classified marking procedures. Being an externally accessible page from a .mil domain, I think it’s safe to say that its treatment of compartmented information isn’t at the CONFIDENTIAL level. It’s true that the actual name of a Special Access Progam may be itself classified, but in that case, it is given a cleared nickname. The classified SAP “Monkey” maybe given the nickname “Diet Sprite.” And it is that nickname that is unclassified.
Also, Executive Order 12958 , which outlines the curent system of national security classification, talks about all these concepts, as well. It defines the concepts, and lists policies and procedures for their application. It is also a publicly available document.
So no, the concept of compartmented information is not itself classified. Some of the names involved, however, can be.
Yes, there is a higher classification than Top Secret but the U.S. government ruthlessly supresses anyone who reveals its exi
Johnny L. A.:
When I was a Fire Control Technician in the early 60s I
heard people mention Crypto secret. Been so long ago
but I believe I saw one folder in the weapons officer’s
office that was marked “Crypto”
Chefguy:
While we were at sea, the weapons officer changed
the combination of the secret safe but instead of writing
it down as he was changing the combination the dummy
thought he would remember it. When he closed the safe
and tried reopen it with the new combination he couldn’t
get it open.
Because of my pre-military experiences he asked me to
crack the safe. After an hour of trying with no luck I told
him that the only way to get into the safe was by cutting
a hole in the top. Three days later, when we arrived in
San Diego he called base locksmith. The first thing the man
said when he saw the safe,“The only into that box is
a hole in the top”
I’m sorry I had to do that… nothing personal…
<reholsters silenced pistol>
You can’t kill him. He’s already dead.
1] Clearance - this is based on your background, how sensitive of material can we trust you with. The highest clearance is Top Secret.
2] Access - do you need to know the material? Here is where we get into the SCI and other subdivisions of material.
The CRYPTO notation had been depreciated by the time I was in the service, being included in the larger COMSEC materials. This information was very exclusive, no matter the clearance required your going to prison if you fuck with it. We had to lock up our Confidential COMSEC documents with the Top Secret stuff {which I have no idea what was}.
We had several 400-500 page manuals and we had to count the goddamned pages and match them each to the revision number every fucking week … man … not one page could be lost and it was “just” Confidential.
There’s no need to classify anything higher than Top Secret, not when access to the information is so tightly controlled.
Did I mention THREE people signing off when we ground that crap up into dust?
My father was an Army officer in the 60s and 2nd in command of a small unit based in Wales. His boss got into debt and was suddenly moved sideways - ie. he just wasn’t there one Monday morning.
Father carried on but when he tried to access the office safe (he knew the combination) it had been changed . He had to complete a long questionnaire with his life history and, hardest of all for a man who had moved around from post to post, find four referees who were not military and not relatives.
He assumed that it was all just a formality, but warned his friends that there might be some enquiry as a result. In fact each of them had a visit from two serious looking men in pin striped suits who spent an hour quizzing them about him.
I have no idea what level his clearance was but he was eventually given the new combination.