Heard There's a New SCIF Policy? Check the ICD 705 Policy Library First
We get a lot of questions that start the same way: "I heard there's a new policy out."
Sometimes it's a new revision of ICD 705. Sometimes it's a Tech Spec change, a DoD manual that was supposedly cancelled, or a requirement someone saw on another project and assumed applies everywhere. Most of the time the document hasn't changed. Occasionally it has, and the team finds out late.
Either way, the cost shows up on the job. A design gets revised to meet a requirement that doesn't exist. A wall assembly gets built to a version that was superseded. A schedule slips while people go looking for the source.
So we built a place where anyone can check: the ICD 705 Policy Library.
What's in it
What's changing. Items that have been publicly reported but aren't official yet, clearly labeled as reported, plus a dated list of recent updates.
What's in force today. ICD 705, ICS 705-1, ICS 705-2, the IC Tech Spec (v1.5.1), DoDM 5105.21 Vol. 2, DoDM 5205.07, DoDM 5200.01 Vol. 3, and UFC 4-010-05. Each one shows its current version and links to the official copy where one is publicly posted.
Restricted documents. FOUO and CUI documents such as CNSSP 300, CNSSAM TEMPEST/1-13, CNSSI 4005, and CNSSI 7000 are listed by title only. We don't summarize or link them. Request copies through your government sponsor's security office.
How they fit together. A one-page map of how the IC documents and the DoD manuals relate.
How we got here. The path from DCID 1/21 to DCID 6/9 to ICD 705, and how DoDM 5205.07 Vol. 3 made ICD 705 and the Tech Spec the physical standard for SAPFs in 2015, displacing JAFAN 6/9.
How we keep it current
We check the official sources every week. When something changes, it shows up on the page with the date and a link to the source. When something is only reported, it's labeled as reported, and it stays that way until the document is actually published.
Here's a current example. A revised ICD 705 standard has been reported as coming, and industry sources report an NCSC memo dated May 4, 2026 that rescinded the POA&M requirement. That memo hasn't been publicly released, and no new standard has been published. The 2010 directive and Tech Spec v1.5.1 are still the baseline. If you're designing or building today, that's what you build to. If you want our read on what the revision is likely to change, we wrote about it in our full analysis of the expected changes.
A habit worth building on every project
When a requirement comes up, ask which document it lives in, and which version. If nobody can point to it, treat it as an opinion until it's shown otherwise. That one question settles a surprising number of disagreements in design reviews and on site.
Secure facility projects don't usually struggle because teams aren't capable. They struggle when understanding isn't shared. The library is our attempt to give everyone on the team the same starting point.
Use it, share it, and tell us what's missing
The library is free. Bookmark it, send it to your project team, and point people to it the next time a rumor comes through. If you hear about a change before we do, or you think a document belongs on the list, let us know. And if you'd rather have the standards on paper at the job site, our field editions are linked beside the documents we publish.
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