What we know about the alleged NSA cyber attack targeting the Chinese National Time Service Center

In a sharp escalation of tensions sprouting from trade tariffs and an increasingly threatening rhetoric, China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) went public on Sunday with claims that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) mounted a sustained hacking campaign against China’s National Time Service Center, the key institution responsible for providing the country’s official time standard.

According to the statement, the NSA allegedly began operations in 2022 by “exploiting a vulnerability” in the messaging service of a foreign smartphone brand to remotely access devices belonging to Time Service Center personnel.

The MSS further claims that from 2023 into 2024, a total of 42 varieties of “special cyberattack weapons” were used to target the internal networks of the centre, as well as even attempting to breach its high-precision ground-based timing system.

The Chinese ministry emphasised the strategic gravity of the target: the Time Service Center is not just an academic facility, but a backbone element that supports communications, finance, power, transport and defence systems.

In its public post via WeChat, the MSS claimed it had gathered “irrefutable evidence” of the attacks, though it did not publish proof along with the strong words. “The U.S. is accusing others of what it does itself, repeatedly hyping up claims about Chinese cyber threats,” the post said.

The U.S. Embassy in Beijing declined to comment directly on the specific allegation, instead reiterating its long-standing view that China poses the most active and persistent cyber threat to American government and businesses.

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“China is the most active and persistent cyber threat to U.S. government, private-sector, and critical infrastructure networks,” an embassy spokesperson told Reuters in an email.

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