Communication with foreign governments
is done at this level.
The president's closest advisers handling international intelligence and national security have this clearance.
Interim clearances are handed out if nothing immediately pops out at investigators and allows someone to do their work while the months-long background investigation takes place.
The White House calligrapher has this clearance because they are required to know the president’s whereabouts ahead of time.
Gives access to some intelligence sources.
The president's daily briefing falls into this category.
Realistically, secret and top secret clearance levels receive SCI access.
White House employees not involved in leadership discussions or the president's whereabouts likely have this clearance.
Most military personnel are given this basic clearance.
Sensitive
Compartmented
Information (SCI)
Top secret/SCI
Confidential
Secret
Top secret
Gives access to information about
specific operations and assets
of agencies.
Often deals with intelligence sources and methods.
Subset of classified information granted to anyone at any security clearance level on a "need to know basis."
Disclosure at this level would likely cause exceptionally grave damage
to national security.
Gives access to information about covert employees and their affiliations.
Gives access to a significantly larger amount of intelligence information.
Disclosure at this level would likely cause serious damage to national security.
Disclosure at this level would
likely cause damage to national security.
When applying for a clearance, 97% of people will eventually get a full clearance.
Not an official fourth security clearance level, but is often referred to as being "above" a top secret clearance.
Individuals must be "read in"
to receive SCI access. They are debriefed when access
is no longer needed.