This figure includes the security classification cost for 41 executive agencies; however, it does not contain the costs for the US intelligence community, according to the 2011 Cost Report compiled by the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO).
The total costs related to information security reached $6.2 billion, up 19% from FY 2010. Information security costs include classification management, declassification, protection and maintenance for classified information systems, as well as operations security and technical surveillance countermeasures.
Other security classification costs include personnel and physical security; professional education, training, and awareness; security management; and unique items.
The ISOO report also estimated the cost for industry to protect US government secrets. Those costs totaled $1.26 billion in FY 2011, up only 1% from the previous fiscal year.
Some experts believe that the US government spends far too much on the classification of documents. “To me it illustrates the most important problem – namely that we are classifying far too much information. The credibility of the classification system is collapsing under the weight of bogus secrets”, Steven Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists, was quoted by the New York Times as saying.
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