At the foundation of America’s secrecy architecture is the classified information hierarchy. The U.S. government classifies information at different levels – Confidential, Secret, and Top Secret – based on the degree of damage to national security that unauthorized disclosure would cause.

Confidential information is the lowest classified level, applied to material that could cause damage to national security if leaked.

Secret information is more sensitive, as its exposure could cause serious damage. At the highest standard,

Top Secret information is reserved for material whose compromise could cause exceptionally grave damage to national security.

Each step up the ladder reflects a smaller circle of cleared personnel and stricter handling requirements, thereby creating a hierarchical barrier to entry. In practice, far fewer individuals hold Top Secret clearance than Secret, and those with Secret are fewer than those with Confidential – a pyramid structure that controls access based on sensitivity.

This graded system ensures that even within the government and military, information is disseminated only as widely as necessary for operations, with the principle of “need-to-know.”