Secret office work: organization and rules of doing business

From now on, secret clerical work is the prerogative of not only government agencies. Documents with the stamp of secrecy today are in almost every major commercial organization. This article will tell you everything about the proper management of secret documentation.

The concept of secrecy in record keeping

Any work activity, one way or another connected with secret or secret documentation, always keeps in itself a lot of difficulties, problems and risks. What is the reason for this? There are many reasons, among which the basic is the banal inability to competently work with securities bearing the classification of secrecy.

To begin with, it would be worth to determine what is generally a secret. The mystery has several meanings. There is to take into account the most common definition, then this concept should be treated as some kind of information that is available only to a limited circle of people. The secret can not be divulged, it must be kept secret. As a rule, the mystery is soon lost, and the information becomes accessible to a large number of people. Accordingly, and the organization of secret records management becomes unnecessary.

Security labels

At the moment, privacy has several basic types. If it is a question of secret office work, one way or another related to public affairs, then all documents are divided into three main types:

• Special importance;
• top secret;
• Official use.

This classification is fixed by the special Federal Law of 21 July 1993 "On State Secrets". What is each of the above vultures?

The "special importance" bar represents the highest degree of secrecy. Naturally, such a status can not be obtained by every document. So, in case of disclosure of the neck of special importance, significant damage to the state or a group of people can be done. That is why the protection of such documents is appropriate.

The "top secret" stamp is also assigned to documents containing some state secret. Strict regulation in dealing with such types of securities is in this case a distinctive feature.

Grief "service use" does not provide documents with special secrecy, but significantly limits their use. This kind of secret office work is established, as a rule, in commercial structures.

The order of classification

The order of classification is also established by the Federal Law on State. Secret, named above. According to this document, the secret subject to the state may include:

• Information on the military sphere;
• Information on economics, technology or science;
• Information on foreign policy or economic spheres;
• Information on counterintelligence, operational or investigative activities, on anti-terrorist policies, and so on.

How are documents subject to classification? The main thing that is worth noting is the presence of specially authorized experts. Persons with certain qualifications are engaged in the development of safe storage of certain securities. The most suitable classification of secrecy is selected, in accordance with which further work is carried out. In fact, secret record keeping is a huge sphere with its employees and managers.

The systemic principle of defining secrecy

For the most competent definition of the degree of secrecy, it is necessary to periodically apply special principles. Next we will talk about the very form of the definition of secrecy in record keeping - the principle of systemic. What is he like?

The main feature of the system approach is a special attention to the problem of secrecy in general. Its main function is to preserve two mutually influencing trends: on the one hand, to prevent the dissemination of important information; On the other hand, avoid mass secrecy and the resulting problems.

How is the secret record keeping going? Here the main are two mechanisms: overstating and understating the neck of secrecy. The overestimation considerably narrows the possibility of exchanging the necessary information, the understatement weakens this process somewhat.

Other principles

What other principles and rules for secret records management can be distinguished? In addition to systemic, it is worth noting also objectivity. What is the point here? If you give a brief description, it sounds like this: when working with secret documentation can not be guided by various kinds of subjective opinions and assumptions. There must be a certain list of rules, according to which all the necessary measures will be developed.

The principle of optimization is another inalienable element of secret record keeping. Its main point is that the least amount of data in classified documents is the best and optimal solution. Excessive information will only violate the necessary level of security.

The principle of periodic inspection is the constant monitoring of secret documentation.

On making changes to classified documents

As already mentioned, the degree of secrecy of a document is determined in accordance with a special list of information. After classification, the documents are classified and sent for safekeeping. Is it possible to make changes to these documents?

Instruction on secret record keeping, which contains the Federal Law on the state. Secret, fixes a number of objective situations and circumstances, according to which, documents can be subject to revision to varying degrees. It should, however, be noted that the deadline for declassifying or changing the documentation should not exceed 30 years. An exception is the decision of a special interdepartmental commission. As in the case of classification, work on the removal or reduction of classification vultures is carried out by a special, authorized group of persons.

Destruction of secret documents

The decision to destroy one or another secret document depends on the classification of secrecy imposed on it. If the bar is marked with a special importance or perfect secrecy, then all the issues are solved by the interdepartmental commission. If it is a question of commercial secret, secret documentation of an enterprise, it is necessary to convene a special expert commission and executives. It will deal with organizational issues, and management should give permission.

The process of destruction takes place, as a rule, in the composition of three or more people. Paper is destroyed with the help of special machines - paper processing machines. There should be a check mark in the registration forms that determine the record keeping. It is also worth noting that the destruction of classified documentation should occur in parallel with the destruction of the internal inventory.

Rules for secret record keeping

Next we will talk about the secret documentation of firms or other commercial structures. When working with secret documents, it is necessary to take into account several basic rules and requirements. It is worth highlighting the most important points:

• It is necessary to observe the strictest control over the access of unauthorized persons to documents. It's about the staff. So, security should be established through security or security services.
• It is necessary to determine precisely the persons who have the right to work with classified documentation. Accordingly, they should be given special powers.
• A clear instruction (memo) for working with secret documentation should be developed. All further work should be organized in strict accordance with it.
• Employees must have an agreement on non-disclosure of commercial and industrial secrets.
• There must be constant material incentives for persons who have the right to access classified documents. In particular, any specialist in secret record keeping must be under the personal control of the management.

These are all the basic rules that must be observed when working with secret or secret documents.

Duties of experts on classified documents

The duties of employees admitted to secret clerical work are different for each enterprise. In any case, there is no single instruction on working with secret documentation. However, it is still possible to identify the most common and common points that every employee who deals with secret papers should remember. In particular, we are talking about the fact that:

• The employee is personally responsible for the storage, preservation or modification of documents.
• The employee should be vigilant, responsible and considerate. Any attempts by unauthorized persons to access the documentation must be immediately stopped.
• The employee must know and follow the instructions of the instruction on working with secret documents.

In addition, it is necessary to highlight what the specialist is forbidden to do. These include:

• Messages to any third party secret information;
• Removal, transportation or modification of documentation without the knowledge of management;
• Acquaintance with the documentation on the issues that are not part of the management of the employee;
• Destruction of documents without the knowledge of management.

Appearance of secret documentation

It is worth giving the most general information about how the cover of secret documents should look. Practically any department of secret office management fixes the following norms:

• The upper right corner is the classification of secrecy;
• Under the stamp - inventory number;
• Documents with a stamp of perfect secrecy must have a red line from the upper right corner;
• The sheets must be numbered and threaded.

Naturally, there are many other requirements for this kind of securities. However, the above mentioned points refer to almost all forms of secret documents.