To understand what is at stake (in the form of admission) (for those who have never encountered access clearance issues), I suggest that you familiarize yourself with a brief excerpt from the Internet on privacy levels ...
There are five levels of secrecy and three forms of access to information. The level of secrecy depends on the degree of danger of the disclosed information and the responsibility that the disclosure may incur. It is not necessary at all that a person who somehow tells state secrets to unauthorized persons can be brought to justice. Much depends on:
- the actual level of information security;
- the time that has passed since the receipt of classified information;
- the position in society that a person occupies and his services to him (it happens sometimes);
- many other factors that are considered in each case separately.
Not all information is secret, this is obvious. And access to it rarely requires permission. Documents containing at least some secret information or state secrets are marked with the following marks, called vultures:
- Secretly. They mark documents to which access by unauthorized persons is undesirable. The information in them contains the lowest level of secrecy. It is not necessary at all that this information is classified as a military or operational-search secret. Secret documents may well contain commercial or industrial secrets. For example, information from hospital cards is classified.
- Top secret. The disclosure of any information contained in these documents is subject to criminal articles.
- Of particular importance. Such a stamp marks letters, photos and videos, computer files and other information, the disclosure of which may affect state security, the country's defense.
Of course, everything is much wider, but within the framework of one article, all the consequences that may follow the non-storage of secret documents are impossible.
There are two more forms of admission of information. This is "unclassified" and chipboard ("for official use"). The first one is distributed, received, stored, propagated by any person. Chipboard documents are everyday information circulating among state, law enforcement agencies. Its disclosure is not so dangerous if it included secret knowledge, but it could still entail some negative consequences.
Any citizen or non-citizen of any country, all media have no form of admission at all. The third, lowest form are many military, employees of law enforcement agencies, government agencies, research institutes, etc. People who have it can be admitted to secret and chipboard information. The second form permits access to the same plus, especially in secret. And finally, the first form of access to information of special importance. She has a very small circle of persons.
But who can determine which information is secret, which is of particular importance, and which can be distributed everywhere and by everyone? Today, when there is no censorship, secret documents are often made public. Fortunately, all the same, the knowledge constituting a state secret is accessible only to authorized persons. Moreover, this information itself varies from era to era. For example, in Soviet times, a lot that related to the life of the party nomenclature, their income, lifestyle, were secret. But not today. And then, and today it will determine which documents are secret and which cannot only special commissions led by a very small number of authorized persons. Among them are the President, the Chairman of the Government, the Prosecutor General, the heads of regions, the heads of some ministries and departments, such as the Ministry of Internal Affairs or Rosatom. Some documents may no longer be secret in a very short time. For example, take the military ultimatum. While it is being developed, discussed, compiled, formed by the powers that be of one country, while it is read and digested by the elite of another, it is a document of special importance. But he was digested, horrified by the impossible requirements, and now, the ultimatum ceases to be secret, every person in the country knows about the imminent beginning of the war.
The disclosure or other dissemination of classified information is not necessarily threatening, but it certainly affects the security of the state. Therefore, traitors are not respected in the country against which they committed a crime, against the rest, even those to whom he transmitted classified information. Such people can only be respected by liberal human rights defenders and ignorant people who do not take the burden of the crime. I must say that the direct possession of classified information and permission to such possession is by no means equivalent.
Here in general terms .....