DNI Tries to Abort Controlled Unclassified Info Policy

In a bureaucratic bombshell, Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe has要求白宫to rescind a ten-year-old executive order that required a uniform policy for marking and handling “controlled unclassified information” (CUI).

CUI refers to information that while unclassified is nevertheless restricted by law or policy from broad distribution. It includesmore than 100 distinct categoriesof unclassified information ranging from export controlled data to privacy information to information systems vulnerability and much more.

为了促进适当的保护和授权共享此类不同信息，Executive Order 13556was issued in 2010 to develop a comprehensive system of CUI practices that would replace the dozens of different, incompatible controls on unclassified information that have proliferated over time.

它刚刚开始生效。行政部门机构必须发布其CUI政策实施计划到12月31日- 从现在开始的两个星期 - 根据信息安全监督办公室的说法，CUI的执行代理商。

But DNI Ratcliffe did not request an extension of time to achieve compliance, as he might ordinarily have done. Nor did he seek an exemption for intelligence agencies from the overall policy. Nor did he suggest another approach to addressthe persistent problem的一致格fying, sharing and protecting CUI whose broad contours have long been recognized, including byPresident Bush in 2008.

Instead, he asked the White House to completely nullify more than ten years of government-wide policy development in this area and to cancel its application to all government agencies both inside and outside of the intelligence community.

“鉴于该计划的复杂性，我相信E.O.的全部撤销13556是唯一可行的选择。”a December 4 memo致国家安全顾问。

考虑到其时机并考虑到大多数其他机构已经完全接受了行政命令，这是一个令人叹为观止的举动。去年3月，国防部有许多情报界都在这里发出了指令（DoD Instruction 5200.48) to implement CUI policy throughout the Department.

“Although its clear mandate was to simplify the unclassified markings system and sharing rules, the resulting CUI program is exponentially more complex than the classification system,” DNI Ratcliffewrote.

但这是一个非旁观者，因为分类系统仅处理国家安全信息。相比之下，CUI涵盖了许多无关的领域，包括纳税人数据，健康记录，核保障，执法信息以及法规中建立的其他各种类别。CUI涉及每个政府机构。在情报界，CUI与某些地理空间数据，操作安全信息，出于反情报目的获得的财务记录以及其他项目有关。

因此，很明显，与国家安全保密相比，CUI政策将更加复杂和深远。其详细的特殊性源于使其尽可能精确和限制的需求。

But “The complexity and lack of clarity within the CUI Program has stymied uniform implementation policy within the IC,” the DNI said. “I cannot justify the continued investment in time and resources required for CUI implementation in the IC.”

TheInformation Security Oversight Officesaid in its most recent (2019)向总统的年度报告that it was “working with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to address CUI implementation issues that are unique to the Intelligence Community.” Still, the Ratcliffe memo said “our concerns remain unaddressed.”

迄今为止，白宫对DNI要求的回应尚不清楚。DNI办公室拒绝对记录发表评论。信息安全监督办公室主任马克·布拉德利（Mark Bradley）说，CUI“在分类和未分类信息之间的暮光领域中起着至关重要的作用。”他说，当前的计划截止日期仍然有效。

According to an ISOO去年5月注意, “”Most agencies project full [CUI] program implementation by the end of the third quarter of FY 2021.” So cancellation of the policy at this late date, without a well-defined strategy to replace it, would be disruptive to say the least, likely including adverse impacts on information security.

DNI Ratcliffe对美国政府对CUI政策的“强烈反对”以及他无法提出可接受的替代方法的“强烈反对”可能会提高信息政策作为拜登政府的优先事项。

DNI Ratcliffe’s备忘录was marked FOUO, For Official Use Only.