Marking systems and documents is a critical part of security.

It makes sure that you can prove that everyone is put on notice that misuse is subject to extreme punishment. This helps prevent accidental disclosure (Oh, I didn't think confidentiality applied to this), and it helps prove the case should anyone violate the rules.

isn't the security benefit from people genuinely not being confused and making accidental disclosures? You phrased it more focused on penalties applied after a failure which to my novice understanding is too late (and ineffective anyway).

Absolutely one reason is why people follow confidentiality rules is fear of punishment.

I mentioned both:

- It prevents people from not knowing something is sensitive and mishandling information

- It prevents people from claiming that they didn't know something was sensitive after mishandling information

I read a very confidential dossier on my last playthrough of Goldeneye 007 on N64.

Yeah I mean compared to having private military keys, this was a funny tack on.

CONFIDENTIAL is one of the collateral security levels. It goes UNCLASSIFIED (this data can be also additionally marked CUI/FOUO, for official use only), CONFIDENTIAL, SECRET, and TOP SECRET. S and TS have compartments which further gate access to information.

The software being marked CONFIDENTIAL means that it is classified software, the exposure of which can cause damage to national security.

While true, confidential restricted is not a US classification marking. It sounds more like the language on a clickwrap license installer, like what you would get for the radio programming software.

This sounds like not much. It would allow an eavesdropper to overhear LEO-type conversations or basic operational discussion but unlikely to be anything actual classified.

I have no idea of course. I don't even know where Arnold AFB is!

You absolutely can have confidential restricted data, see [1].

[1] https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/hss/Classification/d...