NARA names classification chief
Mark Bradley will head the Information Security and Oversight Office, responsible for governmentwide classification policy.
The National Archives named an information policy specialist at the Department of Justice to lead its governmentwide security classification policy. Mark Bradley will be the new director of the National Archives Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO), which makes and oversees policy on classification and the National Industrial Security Program.
Bradley currently serves as the Director of Freedom of Information Act, Declassification, and Pre-publication Review, National Security Division, Office of Law and Policy at the Justice Department.
NARA's ISOO operation has outsized importance for the federal contracting community, because it promulgates policy on how government information is handled in computer systems both inside and outside the government. In September, ISOO published a rule on controlled unclassified information that established a new framework for identifying and handling sensitive information. The office also manages the National Industrial Security Program, which covers classified information held in contractor systems. Additionally, ISOO oversees the governmentwide security classification system and develops policies and liaises with agencies about classification issues.
Bradley is a former CIA officer, attorney and author. He won the 2015 George Pendleton Prize for "A Very Principled Boy," a biography of Duncan Lee, an intelligence officer who leaked classified information about U.S. plans to the Soviet Union during the second World War.