highest classification of any data ever recorded on the media. If classified working copy media is given to a user, the user is then responsible for its protection. Classified finished media must be marked and accounted for. You may be responsible for inventorying magnetic  tapes,  disk  packs,  and  other  forms  of  AIS media.  Your  activity  must  maintain  a  master  list  of  AIS media that is classified as Secret or Top Secret. This master  list  includes  the  overall  security  classification  of the  media  and  the  identification  number  permanently assigned to it. The media must also be controlled in the same manner prescribed for classified material outside an  AIS  environment.  For  additional  information, consult the  Department of the Navy Information and Personnel  Security  Program  Regulation,  OPNAVINST 5510.1 (hereinafter called the Security Manual). Security Markings Your activity will have procedures for marking AIS media. These are important to protect the media from unauthorized, accidental, or intentional disclosure, modification,  destruction,  or  loss.  You  can  imagine how easy it is to pickup an unmarked tape, load it on the tape drive, and have whatever is on it recorded over by a program. You have probably done this to tapes with your tape cassette recorder/player. This is why we have mechanical means, like tape rings and diskette notches, to protect magnetic media. These methods, combined with clearly marked labels, go a long way toward protecting data and programs on magnetic media. Let’s look at the types of markings the Navy uses  for  the  various  types  of  media  for  marking classified  data. MAGNETIC MEDIA.— Each magnetic tape, diskette, and disk pack must be externally marked with a stick-on label with the overall security classification and a permanently assigned identification number. When the tapes, diskettes, and disk packs are to be declassified   by   degaussing,   all   external   labels indicating the classification must be removed unless the media will be immediately used to store information of the  same  classification.  Many  installations  set  aside groups of tapes and disks for recording classified data at each security level. HARD-COPY REPORTS, MICROFILM, AND MICROFICHE.— Hard-copy reports or printouts from a printer, terminal, plotter, or other computer equipment and microfilm and microfiche must be properly marked. Those prepared during classified processing must be marked at the top and bottom of each  page  with  the  appropriate  classification  or  the word   “unclassified,”   and   each   page   should   be consecutively numbered. CRT DISPLAYS.— The appropriate security classification  marking  is  displayed  at  the  top  of  the screen when displaying classified data or information. Disposition of Media There  comes  a  time  when  the  media  or  the information on the media is no longer needed. With microfilm, microfiche, and printouts, we destroy the media with the data. The same is not true of magnetic media. We can erase and reuse the media when the data is  no  longer  needed.  However,  the  media  cannot function forever. Tapes and disks become damaged or eventually  wear  out. When a disk or tape becomes unusable, it must be disposed of. But first, each disk and tape must be accounted for. It may have been used for classified data. The magnetic media librarian will see that it is disposed of properly. If the media contained classified data, it will be degaussed before being destroyed. There are two other problem areas we tend to forget: printer ribbons and carbon paper. Ribbons and carbon paper  must  be  disposed  of  properly.  Because  of  the large variety of ribbons and printers, it is difficult to state   with   certainty   that   any   and   all   classified information have been totally obscured from a given ribbon  unless  you  examine  that  ribbon  in  detail. Therefore, printer ribbons are controlled at the highest classification  of  information  ever  printed  by  that  ribbon until that ribbon is destroyed. The same ribbon is used in  the  printer  for  classified  and  unclassified  information consistent with the levels of physical security enforced for the area. Carbons are easily readable and must be handled and  disposed  of  in  accordance  with  the  classification  of data they contain. Remember, regardless of what the media is, it must be disposed of in accordance with the Security  Manual   if  it  ever  contained  classified information. Basically, the requirement states that the data must be destroyed beyond recognition. If the media did not contain  classified  information,  follow  your  activity’s standard operating procedures (SOPs). 4-12