Under section 18 of the Act on Information Management in Public Administration, authorities operating in ministries, government agencies, public bodies and unincorporated state enterprises, along with courts of law and boards established to handle appeals shall security classify documents and mark them with a security classification to indicate the information security measures to be complied with when handling the documents. A security classification marking shall be applied if the document or information contained within it is secret on the basis of section 24, subsection 1, paragraphs 2, 5 or 7–11 of the Act on the Openness of Government Activities and the unauthorised disclosure or unauthorised use of the information contained in the document could prejudice national defence, preparedness for exceptional circumstances, international relations, combating of crime, public safety or the functioning of government finances and the national economy, or the safety of Finland in some other comparable manner.

The purpose of the recommendation is to support the work of authorities which use the security classifications.

The Information Management Board approved the recommendation on 11 February 2020, and this second, updated publication on 18 December 2020.