Deputy Secretary of Defense John Deutch today announced the release of the
National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual. The manual, known as
the NISPOM, will standardize security policy for all Executive Branch agencies
conducting classified industrial programs and eliminate outdated regulatory
provisions. More than 12,000 companies and independent contractors working
with classified government information will be affected by this manual.
The NISPOM is the product of a six-year effort by hundreds of security
specialists to eliminate duplicative industrial security requirements for a
single company working with several government agencies. Now all agencies will
use the same basic rules. The manual also places greater emphasis on risk
management rather than risk avoidance in the administration of industrial
security. "The National Industrial Security Program creates the framework to
adapt security policies and practices to evolving conditions, threats and
program needs," Deutch stated.
Numerous Federal agencies and industry groups have collaborated in this effort.
The Aerospace Industries Association, for example, is credited with providing
early leadership for the program which led to the NISPOM manual. "The NISPOM
will greatly reduce the chance for confusion, duplication and waste that result
from a proliferation of redundant and often conflicting documents," said AIA
President Don Fuqua.
The NISPOM replaces the Department of Defense Industrial Security Manual for
Safeguarding Classified Information of January 1991.
N.B. A copy of the National Industrial Security Manual is available for review
by the news media in the Directorate for Defense Information, room 2E765, the
Pentagon. Copies will be made available to industry through standard document
distribution procedures.
