Cyber and Telecommunications Security Agency
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 luNazramiya (the Oculus), the headquarters of the CTSA in Bingol | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 2014 |
| Jurisdiction | Governnment of Packilvania |
| Employees | 50,000 |
| Annual budget | 30 billion KRB |
| Agency executive |
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| Parent department | Department of State Security |
The Cyber and Telecommunications Security Agency (Packilvanian: luAjhensiya aluHimayfiyishme aluTalasat nadine luSibar) also known as the CTSA is an agency of the government of Packilvania under the oversight of the Department of State Security that is responsible for protecting the internet and telecommunications infrastructure of Packilvania from foreign and terror attacks, and for enforcing widespread surveillance and censorship of the internet. It is also responsible for gathering signals intelligence through its monitoring of Packilvanian telecommunications networks and internet traffic. It was founded in 2014 following the passage of the Cyber and Telecommunications Security Act. The agency also conducts research and development that has contributed to internet security, quantum computing, artificial intelligence and big data.
History
When the modern internet developed in Packilvania in the 1990s, the government immediately centralized control over the internet and telecommunications service providers with a view to create a large scale national intranet that would insulate Packilvania from foreign influence. As such, protocols, laws and systems have existed since the inception of the internet in Packilvania to monitor, control and protect the Packilvanian internet and subsequently use it to stifle decent against the government, to identify and eliminate threats to the regime and to prevent the infiltration of foreign and non-state actors.
The responsibility of implementing the system of mass surveillance through and of the internet fell on the shoulders of the State Security Agency, then under the 1st Duke of Lehasa and former chief spy of the Carriers of Mercy, Lord and Martyr Eron Dohal. At the time, Dohal and the rest of the spies who were subsumed into the national spy network were unfamiliar with the advancements in internet technology that had taken place in other countries, namely the United Confederation of Concordian States and Great Morstaybishlia, that had enabled the widespread proliferation of telecommunications and the internet in their countries. Many people in Packilvania still relied on mail to communicate and telephones were largely concentrated in prosperous urban areas. Nevertheless, the agency had substantial help from members of the Packilvanian Communist Party who had studied and adopted the technological innovations of foreign countries through covert expropriation of designs and technologies.
Given the immunity that they enjoyed under the Bedonite dynasty, and their desire to continue working in the technology space, the nascent State Security Agency was able to amass and cultivate the technical expertise required to control and direct the growth of the internet from its inception and to impose new controls on existing telephonic, radio and television infrastructure. This led to an internet insulated from the world, and a telecommunications and internet services industry accustomed to and expectant of government surveillance. In 2014, the newly appointed Minister of State Security, Prince Lohadek recognised that the power of the State Security Agency had grown significantly and the agency would metastasize into a potential domestic political threat and so his first policy objective when he was appointed by Sultan Namdun III was to dismember the Cyber and Telecommunications Division responsible for controlling the internet from the State Security Agency and reestablishing it as an independent agency that reported directly to him.
Thus, the Council of Ministers of Packilvania approved the Cyber and Telecommunications Security Act of 2014 which passed the Legislative Council and received imperial assent by Sultan Namdun III. The newly created agency relocated to a different facility but largely kept most of the staff and technology and assumed direct control and supervision of the protocols, software and infrastructure required to impose mass surveillance of the internet. The Cyber and Telecommunications Security Amendment Act was passed in 2015 to grant the CTSA with powers of mass camera surveillance, giving control over public camera surveillance under the purview of provincial and national law enforcement and security bodies. The agency went on to install over 2 billion CCTV cameras throughout Packilvania by 2023. The incredible power granted to this agency and the Minister of State Security's oversight of this and other intelligence agencies gave rise to Prince Lohadek being described as the third most powerful person in Packilvania behind only Sultan Thumim V and Prime Minister Prince Luwadeen by the Kemer Business Post and other publications.
Governance and Structure
The agency is accountable to the Minister of State Security, Prince Lohadek. It is run by the Director of Cyber and Telecommunications Security, the Esteemed, Lord Shamiq Khudayn, the 3rd Earl of Imahan. Under him are the following divisions
- Telecommunications Security Division: protects physical telecommunications infrastructure
- Camera Surveilance Division: controls a mass system of closed circuit television network that monitors urban spaces, national key point assets and public buildings
- Signals Intelligence Division: intercepting, decoding and monitoring all wireless and radio transmissions
- Cyberspace Security Division: developing and implementing internet protocols, monitoring websites, social media and mobile applications and internet activity
- Cyber Defence Division: protecting the government's cyber assets from hackers
- Public Data Collection Division: generates online profiles of every internet user in the country
Activities
Surveillance and censorship
The agency produces a list of phrases and keywords that are banned from search engines, social media applications and websites. It also runs the CCTV network and uses facial recognition technology to identify people, and motor vehicles. The agency intercepts people's private messages and emails and inspects them for suspicious content. The agency scans websites and social media applications to determine whether there is any inappropriate or threatening content. If necessary it will block these websites and were possible identify and either report or arrest their administrators and users. The agency gathers internet usage data of people in the country and uses it to generate a profile and national security threat assessment of them. The agency normally prefers to report suspicious behaviour to the other intelligence agencies and law enforcement agencies partly because it wants to focus its attention on intelligence gathering and analysis and cybersecurity, and due to the complexities and resource constraints imposed by its incredibly large mandate.
Research and development
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The agency has been a key player in research and development, such as in contributing to the invention of internet protocols that protect and encrypt data, the development of facial recognition and biometric data collection and management technology, malware detection, prevention and combatting software, and improvements in cyber security practices among public and private entities. The agency has contributed to policies on protection of private user data from corporate exploitation and third party redistribution. The agency's research has been instrumental in the development of advanced artificial intelligence, big data analysis and quantum computing. The agency owns and operates the Bashram Supercomputer, one of the largest and most powerful computing devices in the world. The agency's researchers have produced papers on quantum tunneling, quantum information and quantum cryptography.