CRYPTO: [The] marking or designator identifying COMSEC keying material used to secure or authenticate telecommunications carrying classified or sensitive U.S. Government or U.S. Government-derived information.

Note: When written in all upper case letters, CRYPTO has the meaning stated above. When written in lower case as a prefix, crypto and crypt are abbreviations for cryptography.

Source: from Federal Standard 1037C and from the National Information Systems Security Glossary