Customizing the Guide
To Fit Your Needs

You are free to add, delete, or change any information in this Guide to ensure that it reflects your organization's specific policies, procedures, and security needs.  You may change the Guide as much or as little as you wish. 

Many users of the Guide have started with minimum customizing, so they can get the Guide up and running quickly.  They then customize it further as time permits.  Before using the program for mandatory awareness briefings, you will want to check to ensure that it covers all the things you want your personnel to learn from the briefing. 

Be aware that once you install the Guide on your network, you become responsible for the content.  It is up to you to determine that this content is appropriate for your organization and reflects your particular policies and procedures.  U.S. Government security regulations apply to all government agencies and companies with classified contracts, but they are sometimes written in broad terms to permit flexibility in implementation.  They may be implemented in different ways that reflect the different circumstances and needs of individual agencies and companies.

All information in the Guide, as it now stands, has been approved for public release by the Department of Defense.  If you add substantive information to this Guide, it is up to you to obtain any approval for public release that may be required.

Technical Issues

You do not need to be a computer programmer to customize this Guide.  The only technical skill required is a basic knowledge of how to use an html editor.  This skill is rather broadly available.  Changing the wording in an existing file is simple.  Adding files or changing hyperlinks becomes a bit more complicated.  To add reporting forms that an employee can fill out and return to you electronically, consult with your webmaster.

The Employees' Guide is written in html using the Microsoft FrontPage software program.  The Guide may be edited directly in html or by using an html editor such as FrontPage.  Any html editor may be used to make the changes as long as it is capable of keeping track of a large number of files. 

Keeping Records

You will find it useful to keep a record of changes you make in the program.  This record will come in handy when there is an updated version of a file.  Updates will be posted on the Defense Security Service website at http://www.dss.mil/training/csg/csg1.htm.  Before installing an updated file, you will want to determine if this is a file you changed and whether those same changes should be incorporated into the update. 

What to Customize

You may, if you so desire, use the Guide virtually as is with only three simple changes as noted below. 

·         At the bottom left of the Home page, delete the link that says Back to Opening Screen.  See below for discussion of other links that might be added here.

·         In the About this Guide file, the description of the Guide should be edited to identify who to contact with comments or questions and whether or not you have customized the original Guide.  If your organization has its own legal counsel, he or she may wish to review the statements here about the Guide.  Please do not delete the Credits section on the About page.  The people who created these cartoons, animations, and page backgrounds and made them available to the public should be given credit for their work.

·         Follow the directions for separating the Guide from the Implementation Package and the CBT Module.  These directions are at the bottom of the page on Tips for HTML Editors.  Separating the Guide breaks all links from the Implementation Package to the Guide.  Therefore, it is advisable to wait until after finishing the customization before doing this.

The following parts of this program should be reviewed and considered for customization.  If you see something you want to change, printout the page or pages and mark up the changes to be made.  The headings below are links to the pages being discussed.

Home Page

Feedback: The Guide is intended to lower the threshold of what prompts people to contact the security office.  You can make it easier for them to contact you by adding a link that allows a user to send an e-mail message back to your office.  (See the draft feedback page.)  An appropriate place for this link would be on the Home page, under the animation.  To prepare an e-mail feedback link to your office, you will need the professional assistance of your webmaster. 

Gray Navigation Bar: If the Guide is installed within a larger Security Office web site, the gray bar at the bottom of the Home page is a good spot for the link back to your Security Office Home Page.  If you do not have any other security office site, this bar can be left blank.

Additional Links: On the left side of the Home page, under Help for First-Time Users, it is possible to make room for a couple additional links.  If you have an automated library of security regulations, for example, you could add a link to it here. 

Quizzes

The quizzes are intended to summarize the most important messages in the Guide.  Add, delete, or edit questions as necessary to emphasize those points that are most important to your organization.  IMPORTANT: To avoid technical problems, see Tips for HTML Editors BEFORE MAKING ANY CHANGES IN THE QUIZZES.

In Quiz I, Question 5, check whether you wish to specify more rigorous procedures for protecting the STU-III key.

Procedures for Protecting Information

Protecting Classified Information: Consider the following:

  • Look at the topics on Using the STU-III, and Appropriate Use of Computers to see if you want to elaborate on or change anything there.
  • If your organization receives foreign visitors, you should consider adding a topic on your specific organization's visitor control procedures.  The threat is described under Foreign Threats to Protected Information in the topics on Short-Term Visitors to Sensitive Installations and Long-Term Foreign Visitors, but it may be appropriate to cover your organization's specific procedures for controlling visitors here under Protecting Classified Information.
  • Some contractors, especially DoD contractors, may wish to elaborate on the discussion in Handling Classified Information.  The file Handling.htm in the Altrnats folder was developed by one defense contractor to incorporate material from its own security procedures handbook into the Guide.  You may wish to edit it and substitute it for the existing Handling Classified Information file to provide more specific guidance on generating, controlling, reproducing, retaining, and releasing classified information. 

Protecting Sensitive Unclassified Information: Government contractors may wish to customize and give a more prominent place to the topics on Proprietary Information and Trade Secrets and Export-Controlled Information.  Look at the topic on Use of Computer Systems.  Do you have an organizational policy on carrying laptop computers with sensitive information?  If so, it would be well to mention it here as well as in Theft of Laptops under Computer Vulnerabilities.

Personal Conduct and Reporting Requirements

Pre-Publication Review of Web Site Content should be checked to see if your own organization's policy on web site content should be discussed here.

What Is Expected of Me: This entire module deals with specific responsibilities for reporting things to the security office.  Tailor it to reflect the specific policies of your organization concerning, for example, reporting foreign contacts or foreign travel.  Consider adding forms and specific procedures for reporting the information.

Reporting Unreliable, Improper, or Suspicious Behavior: This is an obviously important but sensitive area, and the applicable regulations are not very specific.  Review the wording here to ensure there is nothing that you find objectionable or inappropriate for your particular organization.  Do you have experiences from your own organization that could be substituted in the topic on People Who Made a Difference?

Foreign Threats to Protected Information

If you are aware of specific foreign intelligence activities against your organization that you would like to share with your employees, this element of the Guide is an appropriate place to do it.  In doing so, however, please be aware that you may need to obtain approval for public release of such information in a U.S. Government product.  The following policy considerations may apply.

It is the policy of the Defense Security Service, as well as several other government agencies, that Unclassified foreign threat awareness materials should not focus attention on any specific foreign entity (i.e., government, company, association, agency, etc.) as being particularly active in intelligence operations against the United States.  As a result, this Guide discusses foreign threats in general terms -- the methods that are used rather than the countries that are using them.

There are three reasons for this policy:

  • Identifying specific foreign countries as counterintelligence problems focuses awareness and resulting security measures too narrowly.  Intelligence operations in general, and particularly operations against economic, scientific and technical, and industrial targets, are now conducted against the United States by many of our allies as well as our adversaries.  Focusing attention on a few key countries tends to imply that other countries are not a significant threat, which is not the case.
  • Directing an awareness message at a specific foreign country can create an appearance of U.S. Government-sponsored discrimination against nationals, immigrants, and those with ancestry from that nation and the region where it is located.  This appearance of discrimination can go beyond national origin to the appearance of religious or racial discrimination.
  • Awareness messages that concentrate on specific foreign countries can generate unnecessary problems in foreign policy and in the unclassified world of international business.

There are exceptions to this policy against identifying specific countries as threats in any Unclassified product.  1) The sponsoring country may be identified when describing the cases of Americans arrested and prosecuted for espionage.  2) Formal, unclassified U.S. Government threat assessments may be cited, such as State Department identification of countries that engage in state-sponsored terrorism.

If this program is used on a classified network, the limitations on citing specific countries do not apply.  You may wish to customize the Guide to include threat information about specific countries, although it is still wise to avoid focusing security attention too narrowly and to avoid any appearance of discrimination against any particular national, ethnic, or religious group. 

Long-Term Foreign Visitors discusses risks posed by long-term foreign visitors and foreign-national employees, and countermeasures to protect against these risks.  Does your organization have long-term foreign visitors who have access to your organizational intranet and who might see this discussion?  From a security perspective, it may be desirable that they do see it, as it advises them of rules they are expected to follow.  However, you need to judge whether this is appropriate for your particular situation.

Understanding and Helping with Personal Problems

The first topic in this module is written for organizations that have a formal Employee Assistance Program (EAP).  If your organization does not have an Employee Assistance Program, you will very likely want to change this first topic.  The Implementation Package has an alternate topic to insert in its place.  It is the Eap.htm file in the Altrnats folder in the Implementation Package.  For guidance on changing files, see Tips for HTML Editors.

If your organization does have an EAP, you will want to coordinate with the office responsible for that program.  The EAP plays an important role in helping to resolve personal problems before they become security problems.  What is the best way for your security office to encourage EAP usage while also reinforcing the confidentiality and independence of the EAP program?  Ideally, the Guide should help reduce the common employee fear that confiding in the EAP may affect one's security clearance or future assignments.

Does your EAP program have a web site?  If so, one option may be to transfer all but the introductory page of the EAP module to the EAP site, and then provide a link to it in this program.  Some organizations may wish to delete the EAP module, and perhaps modify those pages for inclusion in a separate program on a Human Resources or Medical site.  If you delete the EAP module, remember that you have to delete all the links and references to it.  This can be considerable work, as the navigation bar at the bottom of every page has an EAP link and there are quite a few references in the text.  If you plan to do this, see the discussion of Search and Orphan Links in Tips for HTML Editors.

Computer and Other Technical Vulnerabilities

There are many places under Computer Vulnerabilities, Intercepting Your Communications, and Bugs and Other Eavesdropping Devices where it may be appropriate to discuss your organization's specific policies regarding use of passwords, unauthorized modems, discussion of sensitive company business in e-mail or on cellular phones, encryption, and other countermeasures against technical vulnerabilities.

Do you want to elaborate on policies regarding the use and protection of laptop computers in Security of Laptops, or discuss specific products that are available and should be used to enhance the protection of laptops and the information on them? 

True Spy Stories

Each of the spy stories is designed to communicate a lesson, not just tell a story.  If you have lessons to be learned from specific intelligence activities against your organization, it would be appropriate to add them here.

Treason 101

No changes should be needed in this module.

List of Contents

If you have added or deleted topics, don't forget to make the appropriate changes in the List of Contents as well as in the Contents section of the specific module in which the change was made.

 

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