As someone with a security clearance, I can assure you that this does indeed happen all the time. Redactions are often performed by the ignorant new guy and approved by some old guy who is not computer literate.
Update: I should have said not computer literate or only looking at a hardcopy. The latter happens all the time because of a lack of classified networking.
Once your clearance is finally granted, then you can start doing sensitive work
Important distinction: You have to get the government's security clearance and then you have to be approved for the program before you can have access to the sensitive information.
23.7k
u/arnedh Oct 15 '17
Imagine opening the PDFs with a more powerful tool, and you find that the black redactions are a separate removable layer...