China accuses US of cyberattacks on state agency
China has accused the United States of stealing secrets and infiltrating the country’s National Time Service Center, warning that serious breaches could have disrupted communication networks, financial systems, power supply, and international standard time,News.Az reports, citing Reuters.
China’s State Security Ministry said on Sunday via its WeChat account that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) had carried out a prolonged cyberattack operation on the center.
The ministry reported finding evidence tracing stolen data and credentials back to 2022, which were allegedly used to spy on the staff’s mobile devices and network systems.
The ministry claimed that the U.S. intelligence agency “exploited a vulnerability” in the messaging service of a foreign smartphone brand in 2022 to access staff devices, without naming the brand. The National Time Service Center, under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, generates, maintains, and broadcasts China’s standard time.
China’s investigation also suggested that the United States launched attacks on the center’s internal networks and attempted to compromise its high-precision ground-based timing system in 2023 and 2024.
The U.S. embassy in Beijing did not directly address the accusations, but stated that cyber actors based in China have targeted major U.S. and global telecommunications networks in extensive cyber espionage campaigns. “China is the most active and persistent cyber threat to U.S. government, private-sector, and critical infrastructure networks,” an embassy spokesperson told Reuters.
The accusations mark a continuation of escalating cyber tensions between the two nations, coinciding with renewed trade frictions over China’s rare earth export controls and U.S. threats to raise tariffs on Chinese goods.
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