What We Did:
This management advisory identifies concerns related to DoD Components' marking of controlled unclassified information (CUI). We identified these concerns during the "Evaluation of DoD Policy and Oversight Reports Related to Using Non-DoD-Controlled Electronic Messaging Systems to Conduct Official Business." We conducted this evaluation from April through August 2025 in accordance with the "Quality Standards for Inspection and Evaluation," published in December 2020 by the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency. Based on our review of four oversight projects, we found that DoD organizations may unnecessarily restrict the dissemination of CUI documents. DoD organizations frequently did not correctly mark CUI documents with the required designation indicator block; when they did, the organizations may have unintentionally restricted dissemination by defaulting to the LDCs of “Federal Employees and Contractors Only (FEDCON)” or “Federal Employees Only (FED ONLY)” rather than using “None” or no LDC. The OUSD(I&S) began documenting marking errors in 2023 and posting the metrics on the DoD CUI Program website. According to the website, based on a review of over 48,000 documents from 2023 and 26,000 documents from 2024, the Components reported that 9 percent of the documents from 2023 and 11 percent of those from 2024 did not contain the CUI designation indicator block. Additionally, information was missing from the CUI designation indicator block for four percent of documents from 2023 and seven percent of those from 2024.