It cost the government and industry an estimated $11.42 billion to maintain the classified information system during the last fiscal year, according to a report issued annually by the Information Security Oversight Office on classification costs.

The report, dated April 29 and made public May 3, finds a jump of about $1.49 billion, or 15 percent, in fiscal 2010 costs compared to fiscal 2009. The report attributes the increase to a December 2009 executive order meant to decrease the amount of classified information within government. The last time costs decreased significantly from one year to the next was in 1997. The average annual increase from fiscal 2006 through fiscal 2010 was $485.2 million a year, the report calculates.

Of the $11.42 billion spent on the apparatus of classification during fiscal 2010, government bore the greatest burden, having likely spent $10.17 billion, according to the report. The dollar figures are estimates, since exact collection of exact costs would be cost prohibitive, the report adds.

Information systems security continues to be the single most expensive component of the classification system, having cost an estimated $4.7 billion last fiscal year.

ISOO is a part of the National Archives and Records Administration; it recently issued another report that found an increase in the number of original classification decisions in fiscal 2010 compared to fiscal 2009.

For more:
- download the ISOO fiscal 2010 classification system costs report

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