The Federal Fundamental Computing System (codename System 3, originally Project 558) is the Commonwealth’s classified computer network and a covert federal system, physically separated from all public infrastructure and accessible only to authorised government, military and intelligence users. It is not the Commonwealth Public Intranet, which is a civilian system available to anyone at a library or post office – System 3 is closely controlled, and many Vekllei people have never seen a terminal connected to it.
System 3 is a wholly independent network, and maintains its own fibre-optic cables, its own optical computing mainframes in hardened facilities and its own power supplies. No physical connection exists between System 3 and any public network.
Each of the 83 republics maintains a primary mainframe node (called a “grandmother”), with processing capacity scaled to the republic’s government and military activity. Undersea fibre-optic cables connect island nodes, with redundant satellite links as backup. Users authenticate through credentials stored centrally, and the system grants access on a strict need-to-know basis – a customs official in Summers sees entirely different data than an intelligence analyst in Oslola. In this sense, System 3 has many “faces” depending on who is using it. It is a public and routine piece of infrastructure to many civil servants, but also transmits top secret information between intelligence bureau chiefs.
The system operates on multiple classification channels, each a functionally separate network carried on the same physical infrastructure but cryptographically isolated. The lowest tier handles routine government administration like interministerial correspondence, resource planning, industrial coordination and so on. Above that, a SECRET channel carries military operational traffic, defence planning and law enforcement intelligence. The highest tier, accessible to very few, handles TOP SECRET material: nuclear weapons command and control, intelligence product from the Federal Intelligence Establishment, and communications between the most senior officials.
Most other federal systems depend on System 3 as their backbone. The Atlantic Hydrographic System transmits acoustic data through it, the Shelter Network coordinates through it during crisis, and the Federal Military Establishment uses its highest channels for strategic communications in peacetime.