Topic

Cable colour non-conformance

Applicable to

Secret, Top Secret

History

Priority

must

Jun 2024

SECRET and TOP SECRET cables with non-conformant cable colouring are banded with the appropriate colour and labelled at inspection points.

Minor grammar edits were made to controls without changing their intent.

Dec 2021

SECRET and TOP SECRET cables with non-conformant cable colouring are both banded with the appropriate colour and labelled at inspection points.

Miscellaneous changes were made to rationale and security controls throughout the publication. This included:

• A review from the Using the Information Security Manual chapter through to the Guidelines for Media chapter.

• Security controls suitable for all audiences have been identified with the ‘All’ applicability marking while additional security controls suitable for just government audiences have been identified with the O, P, S and TS applicability markings.

• Security controls suitable for specific classifications have been amended to include their classification(s) in the wording of the security controls to reduce the reliance on applicability markings to confer suitability.

• Tables in security controls have been converted into prose to allow for inclusion in the SSP annex template and the XML list of security controls.

• The use of ‘official’ and ‘highly classified’ terminology has been replaced with specific classifications to remove ambiguity.

• Security controls relating to high assurance ICT equipment have had their applicability narrowed to ‘S, TS’ reflecting that they are intended for the protection of SECRET and TOP SECRET systems and data.

Mar 2021

Cables with non-conformant cable colouring are both banded with the appropriate colour and labelled at inspection points.

Security control 1216 was revised to focus on non-conformance of cable colours for highly classified systems as there are no longer designated cable colours for lesser systems. In addition, cabling infrastructure for SECRET systems in non-TOP SECRET areas should be banded and labelledin the same way as in TOP SECRET areasin order to ensure consistency.

Jan 2021

In TOP SECRET areas, cables with non-conformant cable colouring are both banded with the appropriate colour and labelled at inspection points.

2017

In TOP SECRET areas, no matter the classification of the system, agencies that arenoncompliant with cable colouring must band and label the cables with the classification atthe inspection points.

Control Text Changed. No public explaination.

2015

In TOP SECRET areas, no matter the classification of the system, agencies that are non–compliant with cable colouring must band and label the cables with the classification at theinspection points.