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A security violation or infraction is any
breach of security regulations, requirements, procedures or guidelines, whether
or not a compromise results. No matter how minor, any security infraction
must be reported immediately to the security office so that the incident may
be evaluated and any appropriate action taken.
The following are examples of security
violations:
- Leaving a classified file or security
container unlocked and unattended either during or after normal working
hours.
- Keeping classified material in a desk or
unauthorized cabinet, container, or area.
- Leaving classified material unsecured or
unattended on desks, tables, cabinets, or elsewhere in an unsecured
area, either during or after normal working hours.
- Reproducing or transmitting classified
material without proper authorization.
- Losing your security badge.
- Removing classified material from the work
area in order to work on it at home.
- Granting a visitor, contractor, employee or
any other person access to classified information without verifying both
the individual's clearance level and need-to-know.
- Discussing classified information over the telephone,
other than a phone approved for classified discussion.
- Discussing classified information in lobbies,
cafeterias, corridors, or any other public area where the discussion
might be overheard.
- Carrying safe combinations or computer
passwords (identifiable as such) on one's person, writing them on
calendar pads, keeping them in desk drawers, or otherwise failing to
protect the security of a safe or computer.
- Failure to mark classified documents properly.
- Failure to follow appropriate procedures for
destruction of classified material.
Major Violations
The significance of a security violation
does not depend upon whether information was actually compromised. It depends
upon the intentions and attitudes of the individual who committed the
violation.
Ability and willingness to follow the
rules for protection of classified information is a prerequisite for
maintaining your security clearance. Although accidental and infrequent minor
violations are to be expected, deliberate or repeated failure to follow
the rules is definitely not. It may be a symptom of underlying attitudes,
emotional, or personality problems that are a serious security concern.
The following behaviors are of particular
concern and may affect your security clearance:
- A pattern of routine security violations due
to inattention, carelessness, or a cynical attitude toward security
discipline.
- Taking classified information home, ostensibly
to work on it at home, or carrying it while in a travel status without
proper authorization.
- Prying into projects or activities for which
the person does not have (or no longer has) a need to know. This
includes requests for classified publications from reference libraries
without a valid need to know, or any attempt to gain unauthorized access
to computer systems, information, or data bases.
- Intoxication while carrying classified
materials or that causes one to speak inappropriately about classified
matters or to unauthorized persons.
- Deliberate revelation of classified
information to unauthorized persons to impress them with one's
self-importance.
- Copying classified information in a manner
designed to obscure classification markings. This may indicate intent to
misuse classified information.
- Making unauthorized or excessive copies of
classified material. Going to another office to copy classified material
when copier equipment is available in one’s own work area is a potential
indicator of unauthorized copies being made.
- Failing to report requests for classified
information from unauthorized individuals.
Storing classified information at home is
very serious concern as it may indicate current or potential future espionage.
At the time of their arrest, many well-known spies were found to have large
quantities of classified documents at their residences. CIA spy Aldrich Ames
had 144 classified documents at his home, while Edward Moore had 10 boxes of
CIA documents at home. Of various Navy spies, Jonathan Pollard had a suitcase
full of classified materials, Michael Walker had 15 pounds of classified
material, while Samuel Morison had two portions of Navy documents marked
Secret.
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