More than 4 million US government agency staff and federal contractors hold confidential, secret, and top-secret security clearance giving them access to classified national security data but the process of getting clearance and the classification of restricted information is by no means straightforward.
Even after proving good character and reputation, government agencies can deny authorization for many reasons including evidence of security violations, criminal conduct or drug use.
The process is lengthy and backlogged. There were 500,000 people awaiting top-secret security clearance in the US in 2019, the latest year for which figures are available. The quickest top-secret clearance still took more than a year to process - an incredible 468 days to be exact.
Father of the atomic bomb Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer was stripped of his security clearance
How many Americans have security clearance?
According to a National Counterintelligence and Security Center report, about 4.3m Americans held a security clearance in 2019 - but the number could be higher as updated figures haven’t been released.
Federal government staffers and contractors have their security clearance revoked or downgraded from time to time including Manhattan Project nuclear physicist Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer - wrongly, it later transpired. Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner had his security clearance downgraded in 2018 along with 30 White House staffers, and three federal bureaucrats have been stripped of their security clearances since 2017 for allegedly spying or acting on behalf of a foreign government.
Who gets a security clearance and how?
US government staff can’t apply for clearance - that’s done by the federal agency once the employee is made a conditional offer. Clearance for federal employees and contractors depends on whether the job requires secure access and whether the person can prove their ‘need to know’ the intelligence.
A candidate for the US Department of State, for example, would get a conditional offer of employment and be asked to complete a questionnaire. A background investigation follows including conduct and fingerprint checks against government databases. That also involves a credit check, and may include interviews with people who know the candidate well and a face-to-face interview with the applicant. Depending on the clearance, investigation results may then be forwarded to a Department of State Human Resources suitability panel.
Confidential, Secret & Top Secret documents were found in a 2022 search of Trump's office
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More than 4 million US government agency staff and federal contractors hold confidential, secret, and top-secret security clearance giving them access to classified national security data but the process of getting clearance and the classification of restricted information is by no means straightforward.
Even after proving good character and reputation, government agencies can deny authorization for many reasons including evidence of security violations, criminal conduct or drug use.
The process is lengthy and backlogged. There were 500,000 people awaiting top-secret security clearance in the US in 2019, the latest year for which figures are available. The quickest top-secret clearance still took more than a year to process - an incredible 468 days to be exact.
Father of the atomic bomb Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer was stripped of his security clearance
How many Americans have security clearance?
According to a National Counterintelligence and Security Center report, about 4.3m Americans held a security clearance in 2019 - but the number could be higher as updated figures haven’t been released.
Federal government staffers and contractors have their security clearance revoked or downgraded from time to time including Manhattan Project nuclear physicist Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer - wrongly, it later transpired. Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner had his security clearance downgraded in 2018 along with 30 White House staffers, and three federal bureaucrats have been stripped of their security clearances since 2017 for allegedly spying or acting on behalf of a foreign government.
Who gets a security clearance and how?
US government staff can’t apply for clearance - that’s done by the federal agency once the employee is made a conditional offer. Clearance for federal employees and contractors depends on whether the job requires secure access and whether the person can prove their ‘need to know’ the intelligence.
A candidate for the US Department of State, for example, would get a conditional offer of employment and be asked to complete a questionnaire. A background investigation follows including conduct and fingerprint checks against government databases. That also involves a credit check, and may include interviews with people who know the candidate well and a face-to-face interview with the applicant. Depending on the clearance, investigation results may then be forwarded to a Department of State Human Resources suitability panel.
Confidential, Secret & Top Secret documents were found in a 2022 search of Trump's office
Five levels of security clearance in the US Federal government
The US federal government provides three well-known levels of clearance: confidential, secret, and top secret and two additional super-secret levels SCI & SAP. Top secret clearance is for people who need access to national security information whereas confidential and secret clearance might be more appropriate for state law enforcement officers. From least restrictive to most restrictive the classification levels are:
CONFIDENTIAL
Access to information that may cause damage to national security if disclosed without authorization. Clearance must be renewed every 15 years.
SECRET
Access to information that may cause serious damage to national security if disclosed without authorization. Clearance must be renewed every 10 years.
TOP SECRET
Access to information that may cause exceptionally grave damage to US national security if disclosed without authorization. An FBI candidate for top secret clearance, for example, will have a credit and criminal history check and additional record checks to verify citizenship for the applicant and family members, verification of birth, education, employment history, and military history. Clearance must be renewed every five years.
Two additional super-secret categories of classified information include:
SENSITIVE COMPARTMENTED INFORMATION(SCI)
SCI means classified information concerning or derive from intelligence sources, methods, or analytical processes, which is further restricted, with the requirements that it be handled within formal access control systems established by the director of National Intelligence. At the US Department of Commerce, for example, SCI access is only granted to individuals who have signed a Nondisclosure agreement, have a need to know, have been granted a top secret clearance by Personnel Security, and who are approved by the Department of Commerce’s Intelligence Community granting agency.
SPECIAL ACCESS PROGRAMS (TWO TYPES)
Includes highly sensitive projects and programs. Clearance can range from secret black projects for new weapons to especially-sensitive operations such as presidential transportation support. The two types of SAP are: Acknowledged (which may be publicly disclosed but details of the program remain classified) and Unacknowledged (known only to authorized persons who may include members of appropriate US Congressional committees).
The Pentagon is reviewing how the Defense Department uses the Special Access Program classification for space programs and across the department, according to DoD space policy guru John Plumb.
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