Overview

• China’s Ministry of State Security said the U.S. National Security Agency ran a sustained operation against the National Time Service Center dating to 2022.
• Officials said the campaign began on March 25, 2022 by exploiting a foreign smartphone messaging vulnerability to compromise staff devices and steal data.
• The ministry reported that from April 18, 2023 stolen credentials were used to access computers, followed by an August 2023–June 2024 push using a new platform and 42 attack tools that probed a high‑precision timing system.
• China said attackers routed traffic through private servers in the United States, Europe and Asia, forged digital certificates, used strong encryption, and operated late at night to obscure origin.
• Authorities said they severed attack chains and strengthened defenses to protect “Beijing Time,” while news outlets noted no independent verification and no immediate U.S. government comment.