Unfortunately, Data Classification has it's own terminology or jargon, much like any other specialty.
In certain functions (government, finance)all documents get a classification. in some places you have a default classification, and this default will most likely involve some level of restriction on its distribution. In the military (and certain businesses) the default will be Restricted, in other cases it may default to something like "Internal Use Only". To become public or unclassified, the document will need to be reviewed and deliberately classified that way.
For the purpose of this discussion it should be noted:
UNCLASSIFIED –not technically a "classification", this is the default, and refers to information that is not sensitive and can be freely disclosed to the public. Information that was previously classified under one of the above levels is often declared "unclassified" at a certain time because its age has made its classification no longer necessary.
So, while something may end up and Unclassified, it probably didn't start that way, and a deliberate decision was made to classify it as "Unclassified"
Re:
In certain functions (government, finance)all documents get a classification. in some places you have a default classification, and this default will most likely involve some level of restriction on its distribution. In the military (and certain businesses) the default will be Restricted, in other cases it may default to something like "Internal Use Only". To become public or unclassified, the document will need to be reviewed and deliberately classified that way.
For the purpose of this discussion it should be noted:
UNCLASSIFIED –not technically a "classification", this is the default, and refers to information that is not sensitive and can be freely disclosed to the public. Information that was previously classified under one of the above levels is often declared "unclassified" at a certain time because its age has made its classification no longer necessary.
(Source: Section 2.1, http://www.sans.org/reading_room/whitepapers/assurance/security-issues-data-traverses-information-do mains-guards-effectively-address-problem_1418)
So, while something may end up and Unclassified, it probably didn't start that way, and a deliberate decision was made to classify it as "Unclassified"
Additional references:
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Bell%E2%80%93LaPadula_model
and
http://ist.mit.edu/security/data_classification
or
https://wiki.internet2.edu/confluence/display/itsg2/Data+Classification+Toolkit
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