There is something not at all touched on in this article that I feel has a big impact on the growth of classified space. That is the classification system itsel

There is something not at all touched on in this article that I feel has a big impact on the growth of classified space. That is the classification system itself. Essentially "top secret" is a viral license. Information synthesized from N sources gets a secrecy level of at least max_level(sources). Frequently even more. Further, if someone with secret knowledge works on something that isn't at all in classified space, it may turn out that the new product/work needs to be classified, because classified knowledge may have gone into it. This is a very virulent license - worse than the most paranoid analyses of GPL. Countering this, the declassification process is slow, difficult, and a bit ridiculous. Lots of things remain classified not because they present a continuing issue, but because they make someone look bad. Or because they may be used to establish a pattern or MO that could endanger current operations. Even if that information is widely published. As an aside - one of the fun games you can play with your friends that have some sort of clearance is to ask them recent news related to their area of work. If they respond with vague statements "oh thats interesting" or "I don't know anything about that" and keep trying to change the subject, it generally means they saw a classified briefing about it, or expect to, and can't reveal or discuss anything about it, even if it is all over the news. Particularly if they're very resistant to such discussion. It's a nice way to screw with them. (It's a game because they figure out what you're doing and start screwing with you back, be careful tho, you don't want to get them in serious trouble, or yourself in trouble for pushing too hard). Anyway, the weird viral classified things is why I have rejected offers of work requiring a clearance. It is just too annoying to get interesting side projects and open source participation done when you're in the world of classified. That and I just like sharing cool and interesting things with people. I don't think I'd be happy not sharing.