China’s Ministry of State Security has announced that it has uncovered “irrefutable evidence” of cyberattacks by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) targeting the country’s National Time Service Center, a critical facility responsible for timekeeping. The allegations, detailed in a statement on the ministry’s official WeChat account, claim that the NSA has been exploiting vulnerabilities in employees’ mobile phones since March 25, 2022, to steal sensitive information.China’s national security authorities said that investigations showed that private servers all over the world were used to conceal the source of the attacks, the ministry said. According to the statement, Chinese cybersecurity authorities had found that most of the US attacks had occurred late at night or in the early hours of the morning, Beijing time. It said the NSA had used virtual servers located in the United States, Europe and Asia as “springboards” to conceal the origin of the attacks, along with strong encryption algorithms.According to the ministry, the NSA, the U.S.’s primary signals intelligence agency, has also used stolen login credentials to repeatedly hack into the center’s computers since April 18, 2023. The attacks, allegedly masked through private servers worldwide to conceal their origin. China’s Time Service Center, located in the northwestern city of Xi’an, is a vital national facility that provides high-precision service for the government, civil society and the various industries. It also provides highly precise timing services for the country’s communications, finance, power, transport, mapping and defence sectors.China’s national security authorities stated that they have implemented protective measures and preventive steps to secure the Time Service Center. The accusations come amid heightened U.S.-China tensions over trade and follow a series of claims by Western governments and companies accusing Chinese hackers of cyberattacks on their systems. Beijing’s latest allegations threaten to escalate the ongoing cyber rivalry between the two global powers.
