Which of the following statements is true of DoD unclassified data?

Which of the following statements is true of DoD unclassified data?

A) It is publicly accessible.

B) It is classified as confidential.

C) It is restricted to authorized personnel.

D) It requires top-secret clearance for access.

Answer: C) It is restricted to authorized personnel.

The Department of Defense (DoD) data are not public data when unclassified and usually accessible only to employees of the DoD. It provides a means of protecting identified information which, though not classified, should not fall into the wrong hands or be disseminated to the wrong persons for maintaining operational security without having to go through the procedure of classifying it as such as would otherwise be required. For instance, unclassified DoD information may contain some bureaucratic correspondence which has not been classified but does not have to be made public, specific technical details or some organizational protocols of the functioning.

Suppose there is a case in which the US Department of Defense is devising a new system for logistics in the supply chain. That this system exists could be common knowledge but information as to how the system works, how it can be exploited or even the strategies for the implementation of the system would most probably be classified as unclassified DoD information. The information contained in the current data sources would only be available to DoD employees, contractors or any other person who requires the information in his or her line of duty. Likewise, documents for personnel records as they are quite unrestricted, would only be accessible by the departments that are bound to human resources and particular managers. Another example could be guides for training the employees in non-classified equipment or some procedures. But then, such materials are not concealed; rather they are made available to personnel in specific training programs only. Such limited access is instrumental in discouraging possible enemies from getting hold of good information from numerous seemingly unrelated unclassified pieces of information. Strict rules of necessary-to-know apply, for instance, even among civil servants all who require such information for their work get such data, this, in turn, helps to protect sensitive unclassified information in the DoD.