SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE CALLS FOR BETTER INFORMATION SECURITY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100020002-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 21, 2012
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: December 23, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/21 : CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100020002-7
news release
Senate Select Committee E
on Intelligence
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: DAVE HOLLIDAY
DECEMBER 23, 1985 [phone]
SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE CALLS FOR BETTER INFORMATION SECURITY
The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence today sent the National
Security Council its recommendations on information security. The Committee
called for a National Strategic Security Program, a streamlined classifi-
cation system, and new procedures for the authorized disclosure of classified
information by Executive branch officials and press officers. The Intelli-
gence Committee also urged immediate implementation of 13 recommendations
made by the Information Security Oversight Office.
The Intelligence Committee tied recent espionage cases to "attempting
to protect too much and thereby stretching personnel and other security
programs too thin. The issue is not just inadequate resources, but attitudes
as well."
The Committee noted "troublesome evidence of a lack of overall national
policy guidance" on security and called for "a comprehensive and integrated
National Strategic Security Program to coordinate and foster the protection
of information and activities having the greatest strategic importance."
The Committee cited similar proposals by the Information Security Oversight
Office and the Stilwell Commission in the Defense Department, as well as by
Senators Roth, Nunn, and--in 1957--Stennis.
The Intelligence Committee warned of "a fundamental. underlying probl.em
in the complexity of the f information security] system." It called for a
"streamlined" classification system and recommended consideration of a
two-level system that would eliminate the "Confidential" classification.
The Committee stated, "Rather than assuming that information is classified,
the burden should be to show the need for secrecy."
To combat leaks, the Intelligence Committee sees a need to change "the
underlying attitudes that foster disrespect for the rules of secrecy." The
Committee calls for new "procedures [to] be followed whenever any official
authorizes disclosure of classified information to the news media. The
procedures should apply not only to formal statements for attribution, but
also to disclosures on background."
The Intelligence Committee recommendations were sent to the National
Security Council in response to an invitation from the Director of the
Information Security Oversight Office, which has submitted 13 proposed
initiatives to the NSC. The Committee calls the ISOO initiatives "an
excellent agenda for short-term actions." It urges, "strong, publicly-stated
endorsement of the President" for those and other proposals, and calls for
NSC members to "hold senior executives and program managers personally
responsible for effective implementation."
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/21 : CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100020002-7