China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) said in a WeChat post that it had uncovered what it called ‘irrefutable evidence’ of a ‘premeditated’ cyber operation by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) targeting China’s national time service.
The MSS said the intrusion dated back to March 25, 2022, and that the attack was ultimately foiled. The ministry identified the target as the National Time Service Center (NTSC), which it said is responsible for generating, maintaining and transmitting Beijing Time.
According to the ministry’s account, the NSA exploited security flaws in an unnamed foreign brand’s SMS service to compromise mobile devices of several NTSC staff and steal sensitive data. The MSS said the agency then used stolen login credentials to access computers on April 18 the following year and later deployed a ‘cyber warfare platform’ between August 2023 and June 2024 that activated 42 specialized tools to mount high-intensity attacks and attempt lateral movement toward a high-precision ground-based timing system.
The MSS said the attacks, launched late at night and in the early hours Beijing time, were routed through virtual private servers in the U.S., Europe and Asia to conceal their origin. The ministry also alleged the use of forged digital certificates to bypass antivirus software and strong encryption to erase attack traces, and said China’s national security agencies neutralized the operation and implemented additional security measures.
The ministry also accused the United States of launching persistent cyber operations against China and other regions, and of leveraging technological footholds in the Philippines, Japan and China’s Taiwan Province to obscure involvement.