A Confidential clearance, also known as a "
public trust" clearance, this is hierarchically the first security clearance to get, typically requiring a few weeks to a few months of investigation
A Secret clearance, also known as Collateral Secret or Ordinary Secret, requires a few months to a year to investigate, depending on the individual's background.
Top Secret is a more stringent clearance. A Top Secret, or "TS", clearance, is often given as the result of a
Single Scope Background Investigation, or SSBI.
Above that are Compartments. An individual may be granted access to, or
read into, a compartment for any period of time. Top secret clearance might be required to access:
- Communications intelligence, a subset of SIGINT
- Design or stockpile information about nuclear weapons
- Nuclear targeting
Area-specific clearances include:
I've had a Temp Q badge for Lawrence Livermore Labs. The application was about 4 pages of every detail up my chlidhood schooling, etc.
But, the main point of this is pretty simple. They higher up you get in clearance, the less you see. And what you do see can get you killed.
A clearance by itself is normally not sufficient to gain access; the organization must determine that the cleared individual
needs to know the information. No one is supposed to be granted access to classified information solely because of rank, position, or a security clearance.