Overview
- China’s Ministry of State Security said on WeChat that it has “irrefutable” evidence linking the NSA to operations against the National Time Service Center from 2022 to 2024.
- According to the ministry, the intrusion began by exploiting an SMS service vulnerability on a foreign phone brand to compromise staff mobiles, steal credentials, and later access internal systems.
- Chinese authorities stated they gathered forensic evidence, ordered an internal probe at the NTSC, disrupted the attack chain, and strengthened defenses, while urging public vigilance for suspected foreign activity.
- Beijing emphasized that the NTSC underpins time synchronization for sectors including finance, telecoms, power grids, transport, and space operations, warning that disruption could trigger cascading failures.
- The coverage reports no U.S. government response or independent verification, and situates the claim within ongoing reciprocal cyber-espionage accusations between China and the United States.