Overview

• China’s State Security Ministry said the U.S. National Security Agency ran a prolonged cyber operation against the National Time Service Center.
• Investigators said access began in 2022 by exploiting a messaging vulnerability on an unnamed foreign smartphone brand used by staff.
• China reported repeated use of stolen credentials from 2023 to breach internal systems and attempts in 2023–2024 to target a high‑precision ground‑based timing system.
• Officials warned that a serious breach could disrupt communication networks, financial transactions, the power supply and international standard time, though no such outages were reported.
• The National Time Service Center under the Chinese Academy of Sciences provides China’s standard time from Xi’an, and the U.S. embassy and NSA did not immediately comment as China noted broader U.S.–China cyber and trade tensions.