Meeting with Security Specialist

A few weeks ago I met with Mr. Deats, who is one of the Security Specialist for the Office of Security (OSY). Mr. Deats currently works for the Counterespionage Division for OSY. His job is mainly to maintain all policy aspects of how Commerce employees handle classified information (from Unclassified up to Top Secret). His job covers many aspects of this responsibility including giving briefs to new employees who are given authority to classify documents and the guidelines to do so. Mr. Deats is also responsible for keeping track and having accountability for all classified documents and equipment for Commerce. He explained to me the computer system used by various Commerce bureaus that shows how many documents are classified within each bureau and where they are located. Classified documents are stored into safes that are located throughout the building. He was also showed me some of the communications equipment and how much it costs. For example a fax machine that is used to send classified information costs around $5,000 and a telephone used to discuss classified information costs $3,200! The way these machines work is that the message is encrypted while it is being transmitted to the receiver.