ACP 122 (F) - Multilateral Planners Conference

UNCLASSIFIED
ACP 122(F)
907. When, and if possible, countries that do not mandate the use of policy identifiers on
their messaging systems or are not able to allocate one, the appropriate national policy identifier
should be applied at the originating national boundary.
CLASSIFICATION.
908. The Classification is a grading given to information or material to show the degree of
damage that could result from its unauthorised disclosure and the standard of protection to be
given to it. Whilst there is general agreement and understanding within the international
community on the meaning of TOP SECRET, SECRET, CONFIDENTIAL and
UNCLASSIFIED 2 , a number of nations do not use the term RESTRICTED. Equivalences and
subsequent mapping should be in accordance with the appropriate bi-lateral agreement. It should
be noted that there may be occasions when, due to the differences in bilateral agreements
between nations, a message that has been forwarded to a third nation may bear a higher
classification than the one assigned by the originator. This is commonly known as ‘label creep’.
e.g.
a. AUS sends a message with a Classification of RESTRICTED to the USA and UK.
The bilateral agreement between AUS and the USA states that the USA will treat
the message as CONFIDENTIAL.
b. The USA replies to the message, copying UK. Both AUS and the UK receive the
reply with a Classification of CONFIDENTIAL.
909. Where possible, it is desirable that the original label is retained in order to clearly show
the originators intent and ensure that the recipient knows how the information is to be handled in
accordance with the applicable bilateral agreement. This only applies where differences in
bilateral agreements may change the allocated classification (e.g. the originators label ‘CAN
PROTECTED A’ could be displayed as ‘CAN PROTECTED A (RESTRICTED)’ when
delivered to a UK recipient.)
CATEGORIES.
910. Descriptors. Whilst the CCEB uses descriptors, some of which are common to all
nations, they are not intended for use in international communications and will not be passed
through MM gateways.
911. Codewords. Coordination is required between CCEB nations if a Codeword is to be
used internationally as part of the Security Label to ensure it is managed appropriately. When,
and if applicable, nations should include a field within the security label that is capable of
supporting Codewords. This will enable users of messaging systems to exchange information
that contain codewords common to nations. Codewords will have specific Security Enforcing
Functions (SEFs) applied to them in order that the information contained in a message is
distributed and handled appropriately.
2 The marking or description given to information which is not protectively marked.
9-2 Original
UNCLASSIFIED