Information: Belesia

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Belesia’s information sharing and management is very progressive. The government and population seize on the opportunities that technological advancement offers to enhance the quality of life. Some 15 years ago, the government instituted the Belesia Technology Institute (BTI) to direct the development of information technology. BTI actively conducts Information, Communications, and Technology (ICT) programs to achieve the goal of developing a regionally competitive communications sector. Government programs support many sectors, including government regulatory support, science and technology education, business, and technology development and implementation. BTI established and maintains the country’s social media presence using the applications popular not only with Belesia’s population but also with the region at large. This is no small task considering the vast number of languages, dialects, and cultural nuances.

Recent government reforms abolished government censorship of internet news and information sharing. In addition, passage of laws supporting e-commerce and digital signatures contributed to one of the most active e-government and e-commerce sectors in the Pacific region.

The government, launched initiatives with the business sector to develop the country’s mobile service network as rapidly as possible, and essential factor given the archipelagic nature of Belesia. They successfully implemented a 3G mobile broadband service despite the lack of intervening 2G infrastructure. The government was able to institute this advanced communication technology while supporting development by private network providers.

Recent government support and testing of mesh network systems granted internet access to the majority of Belesia’s population. Implementation of mesh networks throughout the country also improved internet security thanks to the system’s embedded network security hardware and firmware.

Low-cost data packages and mobile phones are quickly becoming ubiquitous throughout the country. The government’s emphasis and support of connectivity puts the country on-pace to surpass Amari as the leading internet and mobile phone using country on the continent.

Satellite Telecommunications

Belesia procures satellite communication services from the private sector. Its proximity to the equator has made it a frequent target for real estate acquisition for corporations looking to construct ground control stations.

Navigation

Belesia uses global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) in support of many programs. Notable among them is the long-running effort to forecast severe weather events, flooding, earthquake, and tsunami danger. Belesia is a member of the Pacific Meteorological and Oceanographic Consortium, and collaborates on projects with South Torbia and Olvana.

Belesia military forces currently use the American Global Positioning System (GPS) for guidance and limited targeting. The government continues to work with the European Space Agency (ESA) as a partner in the group focused on deployment of the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) by 2020. EGNOS upgrades will improve signal reliability, thereby reducing susceptibility to spoofing or jamming.

Public Communications Media

Belesia Telephony (BTel) is a government monopoly operating the country’s communication networks, internet, radio, television, and telephone. Though the government controls radio, television and the internet, this control does not translate to censorship, based on the laws passed in 2013. Courts maintain oversight to ensure that any attempts at government censorship are quickly resolved.

Internet

Belesia’s general population is rapidly becoming technically adept, with a growing interest in the opportunities offered by electronic financial transfers, social media, and data mining. The growth of 3G broadband cellular availability and dropping costs of data packages is responsible rapid growth in internet use by Belesians. The last statistics available show the internet penetration rate at 35% with a projected growth rate of 10% annually. This growth and penetration percentage puts Belesia on par with or surpassing South Torbia in the next 10 years.

Using submarine cables and an expanding fiber-optic backbone network, there are a dozen public and private internet service providers (ISPs) competing in the communications business sector. Each of the major islands has a cable terminal, with branches service neighboring smaller islands. Leyte and Palawan are connected to the South Torbia-Olvana submarine backbone, while the southern islands connect to a trans-Pacific cable terminating in the United States. This arrangement generally provides reliable service.

A notable exception to this connectivity is the Sulu Archipelago between Borneo and Mindanao. Communication is limited to cellular telephone, marine and shortwave radio.

Television

Television remains a leading media product, with access found in 70% of the current households. Broadcast facilities and transmitters remain under government control and service two national and one private network. The networks support a chain of 40 stations throughout the country. Private network broadcasts provide separate entertainment focused mostly on sports and variety shows. The viewing public also has direct access to regional and international satellite television programming.

Radio

Btel operates the broadcast system for 4 national radio networks, 15 regional radio stations and 5 privately owned stations. All report the national and regional news from the Belesia news agency, with international news stories covered in more detail by the private stations.

Print Media

Print media continues to be a strong source of information in Belesia. Each of the major islands has at least one daily newspaper. Newspapers routinely criticize all levels of the Belesian government, as well as other countries. The government has occasionally arrested journalists refusing to reveal sources. The courts, however, predictably dismissed charges once they came to trial. Word-of-mouth also remains a well-used information channel, strongest in religious groups, trade unions, and tribal conduits.

Print media continues its historic role in Belesia as a bastion of truth. Publishers and journalists hold an ethos that they seek and report facts and not opinion, even when unpopular with the government. The Belesian people hold print media in high regard and readily launch demonstrations calling for journalist release when incarcerated for political reporting.

Journalists in Belesia are embracing digital channels for information delivery to the public. The Belesian public, trusting journalist ethics, generally accept the reporting from the new media. They value and respond to calls from publishing houses to counter perceived government infractions.

Telephone

Belesia followed the same path as many other island countries and jumped directly to mobile phone service, bypassing landlines as the main communications means. BTI initiated the program for commercial 3G/LTE licenses for mobile service. The mobile 3G/LTE market skyrocketed after the initial offering to reach a subscription rate of 452 per 1000 of the population to-date. The subscriber rate continues to grow as the service providers expand the infrastructure to support their networks.

The rapid expansion of mobile phone use is made possible by the availability of prepaid Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards. Initially, the government required little in the way of documentation of SIM card sales, creating a huge market of small SIM card sellers to appear throughout the country. As it became apparent that limited regulation would lead to misuse and abuse, SIM registration requirements were established. A mandatory registration program went into effect to capture and document identification information of all paid and prepaid SIM card users. The program instituted a one-month grace period with a cut-off date for completion of registration. After that date, the government forced all mobile service providers in Belesia to cut-off service to unregistered SIM cards.

While the intent of the program was to reduce fraud and crime associated with unregistered SIM cards, it actually had several negative effects. Many users were unceremoniously cut-off because of poor program administration. This resulted in lengthy adjudication and a growing public anger. Public outcry lead to distrust over security of user information and the government’s access. Finally, the program caused a black market to spring up for purchase of fraudulent or stolen SIM cards. Criminal elements in Belesia found the black market to be lucrative in both the sale of the SIM cards and identity theft.

The mobile phone market is expected to show double-digit growth over the next 5 years. The public is rapidly dropping their hard-wired phones to adopt low-cost mobile units supplied by both international and national service providers. The activation of Belesian satellite service supporting internet access will result in increased competition and is expected to reduce the cost of access by as much as 60%. T

Postal/Courier

Belesia’s postal system (BelPost) offers not only letter and package delivery but also financial services. At the onset of mobile phone growth, there were approximately 4 million Belesians with bank accounts through their local post office. Integration of e-finance services via mobile phones resulted in significant growth of on-line accounts.

BelPost is a relatively reliable service provider with a good track record of delivery and accountability. Public perception is that the postal service is a trustworthy government agency and there is little corruption among the postal employees. The government’s direct investment to establish the necessary network connections focused on reliability and security firmly establishes BelPost as a key information service provider for the population.

Word of Mouth

Among many families and tribes in Belesia, Word-of-Mouth (WoM) is still the most trusted information medium, facilitated between islands by the constant small boat traffic. Belesians, however, are quickly assimilating new communication abilities offered by the internet and mobile phone technology, and WoM is starting to lose its standing in information exchange. Belesians now have greater access to information, with many accepting internet content without question of the validity. Some pockets within the country continue to rely on WoM; the strongest are religious groups, trade unions, and tribal groups.

Information Control

Government control of radio, television and internet continues with a strong focus on using the full capabilities of the various Information Communications Technologies (ICTs) to advance Belesia’s economy as rapidly as possible. As state earlier, the control is offically limited to development and maintenance of the infrastructure, not the information content itself. Compliance by government leaders with the country’s anti-censorship laws continues to be effective in maintaining the guaranteed freedom of speech established by the constitution.

INFOWAR

Belesia’s leadership continues to control and direct INFOWAR (IW) assets at the national level. Unit, equipment, and personnel allocations are under the direction of the national command authority to ensure compliance with national objectives. Resource allocation is for a specific period, with dual reporting to both the supported unit and the national command authority. In this way, the leadership remains aware of all collection efforts as well as the intended effects on the identified targets.

Electronic Warfare

Electronic warfare (EW) capabilities consist of integrated radar warning and RF countermeasures. The EW platforms consist of under-wing pods attached to the limited number of aircraft in the Belesian Air Corps. The pod provides the pilot with real-time situational awareness and detection of surface-to-air and air-to-air radar guidance. The system’s integrated threat warning and electronic countermeasures automatically identify threat radar systems for targeting by on-board aircraft weapons.

Computer Attack

The leadership of Belesia, recognizing the growing potential of cyber warfare, created a new government group in 2010 to develop the skills and techniques necessary target adversary computer systems. The government chartered the Belesia Automation Emergency Response Organization (BAERO) to build the required capabilities. Initially, BAERO focused primarily on defensive cyber methods to protect government, military, and financial systems. As defensive capabilities came on-line, the group turned its focus to offensive cyber. An understanding of the typical defensive measures used to protect computer systems and networks provided insight into how to best attack adversary systems.

Information Attack

Exploitation of the growing information and communications technology (ICT) use in the Pacific allows Belesia to develop new and innovative methods of exploiting data of potential opponents. Belesia targets not only the expected financial, infrastructure, and government networks, but also prioritizes penetration of social media networks, recognizing them as a conduit to exploit more critical targets. This approach provides deniability and is forensically difficult for target countries to prove without extensive cyber capabilities. The information attack program also links with active deception to create doubt within adversary countries of the information’s validity.

Deception

BAERO also developed the capability to construct false or misleading messages and internet traffic to support government information campaigns. Using misinformation, Belesia builds a storyline that deceives the target audience for the benefit of the country. The group uses all forms of media to create audio, video, internet news posts, social media posts, and even graphic posters that serve to change the public’s or an adversaries understanding of reality.

Physical Destruction

Belesia has no known physical destruction programs specifically oriented toward INFOWAR. See Military: Belesia for discussion of general purpose military force.

Protection and Security Measures

BAERO works with higher education and the training community to recruit and develop individuals with the skills and talent needed to secure Belesia’s computers and networks. The program implemented a Master’s program in Information and IT Security in 2012. Graduates currently work in the government, military, and business sectors. The strength of the program serves as the basis for the military development of both defensive and offensive computer warfare capabilities.

Belesia is working to expand the program’s reach by developing regional support for computer and network security. Belesia and Gabal signed a mutual support agreement, with Belesia taking the lead in providing technical expertise for IT protection and security measures. The regional office for computer and network protection is the lead agency in identifying threats attacking the financial sectors of both countries and in taking action to defend critical financial institutions by removing the threats.

Perception Management

Rapid growth of internet access in Belesia created social media celebrities that have the ability to shape public perceptions. The government attempts to use their popularity to sway public perception with some limited success. The use of social media as the most popular media of the moment is the most effective way of reaching the population with the government message. Rather than the intended outcome of supporting government programs, the main result has been to increase the popularity of the social media personalities.

The government still relies on print, radio, and television as means to target messages to selected portions of the population. Using multiple means of message presentation leads to some instances of conflicting information and confused public perceptions. New programs are exploring the use of social media to aid the government in economic and information development.

Intelligence

Belesia maintains a centralized intelligence organization and allocates assets to military, security, or national missions based on analyzed requirements.

Command and Control Systems

Government

• Networks – Existing cellular and internet networks; developing secure satellite linked replacements
• Radar – Principally support for commercial aviation operations
• Optical – Airborne platforms with video and thermal cameras. Satellite imagery capability coming on-line in the near future.
• Satellite – Purchased services for communications and imagery with government-owned platforms part of a long-term plan.

Military

• Networks – Encrypted version of mesh-net networks that supports secure VOIP.
• Radar – integrated radar warning; limited ground systems
• Radio – HF, VHF, UHF; Land Mobile Radio,

Human Intelligence

Human intelligence continues to provide the majority of external data collection and a balanced share of internal intelligence for the Belesia government. Internally and internationally, Belesia recruits technicians working in oil and gas field operations. These agents target information collection that identifies potential fields, production capacities, and development plans. Many of the Belesia agents are in the information technology, technical support, and mid-level managers operating among regional competitors.

At the national level, the government routinely deploys special purpose forces to locate and target the activities of insurgents and other disruptive groups such as criminal gangs. Special purpose forces perform missions that collect essential intelligence to allow the military to launch raids and target patrols of suspected insurgent areas or smuggling routes. An agent network in each of the largest Belesian tribes provides a steady flow of information from the field that allows the Belesia Intelligence Service to identify individuals and groups that are potential threats to national objectives.

Open Source Intelligence

Belesia is rapidly adopting open source information research and analysis to improve intelligence capabilities with the assistance of the Belesian education sector. Units monitor all public network traffic and information sources to identify potential exploitation opportunities or threats to national interests. As part of the development of OSINT capabilities, BTI has several R&D projects to explore the use of data mining, artificial intelligence, and social media applications.

Signals Intelligence

Belesia uses proven network surveillance capabilities as part of its signals intelligence operation. Coupling FinSpy malware with man-in-the-middle ISP uploads Belesia SIGINT is capable of gathering information from infected computers and smartphones. The offensive cyber capability allows Belesia to target internet users. The software uses advanced techniques to avoid detection by antivirus software or forensic techniques that identify the source of the attack.

Imagery Intelligence

Belesia currently purchases high-resolution multispectral satellite imagery from a variety of worldwide sources.

Measurement and Signatures Intelligence

Belesia has no established MASINT systems.