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The Department of Defense Faces Strategic Obstacles in Stemming Disclosures

• Media leaks have many causes but few feasible and effective solutions.
• There is a longstanding organizational culture in DoD that treats leaking classified information to the media as nearly risk-free, which suggests to some that the behavior is acceptable.
• To be fully effective, remedies must address the full range of security, classification, and particularly UD-related behavior, and establish an end-to-end accountability process from initial UD identification through the imposition of effective penalties for violations.

Tactical Obstacles Also Exist

• Successfully addressing the unauthorized disclosures problem requires carefully calibrating the focus of current efforts and prioritizing the most serious UDs for action.
• The current plan focuses mostly on identification and reporting, but these activities must be complemented by other, equally significant tasks, such as assigning responsibility and ownership for acting on the reported disclosure and seeing the action through all the needed steps to bring it to closure.
• The language and guidance addressing UDs in DoD directives and manuals is often unclear, inconsistent, or ambiguous, and requires clarification,
• It is important to identify steps where security can act before leaks occur, as well as determining where new measures could improve the security clearance vetting process.
• The lack of metrics to track results, the sensitivity of counterintelligence investigations, insufficient authority of UD PIT members within their own components, and insufficient outreach to non-DoD elements all require correctives to improve implementation effectiveness.