The US National Security Agency hacked China\u2019s National Time Service Center over several years, the Chinese counter-espionage agency has claimed<\/p>\n
China has accused the US National Security Agency (NSA) of waging a \u201cmajor\u201d multi-year cyberattack on the Chinese agency responsible for keeping national time.
\nIn a statement posted on its official social media account on Sunday, the Ministry of State Security (MSS) said it had \u201cobtained irrefutable evidence\u201d that the NSA infiltrated the National Time Service Center. The covert operation allegedly began in March 2022, aiming to steal state secrets and conduct acts of cyber sabotage.
\nThe center serves as China\u2019s official time authority, issuing and broadcasting \u2018Beijing Time\u2019 to key sectors including finance, energy, transport, and defense. A disruption to this critical piece of infrastructure could have caused widespread instability in financial markets, logistics and power supply, according to the MSS.
\nAccording to the MSS, the NSA first exploited a vulnerability in the foreign-made mobile phones of several staff members at the center, gaining access to sensitive data.<\/p>\n
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In April 2023, the agency allegedly began using stolen passwords to breach the facility\u2019s computer systems, an operation that peaked between August of that year and June 2024.
\nThe ministry claimed that the intruders deployed 42 distinct cyber tools in their covert operation, and used virtual private servers based in the US, Europe, and Asia to mask their origin.
\nThe MSS accused the US of \u201caggressively pursuing cyber-hegemony\u201d and \u201crepeatedly trampling on international norms governing cyberspace.\u201d\u00a0
\nAmerican spy agencies \u201chave acted recklessly, continuously carrying out cyberattacks targeting China, Southeast Asia, Europe, and South America,\u201d it added.
\nIn recent years, Beijing and Washington have repeatedly traded accusations of breaches and covert hacking operations. Mutual recriminations have come as part of a broader pattern of confrontation between the two powers, which have also been locked in a trade war.
\nIn early January, the Washington Post claimed that Chinese hackers had targeted the US Treasury Department\u2019s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) the previous month. Commenting on the allegations at the time, Mao Ning, spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, dismissed them as \u201cunfounded.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The US National Security Agency hacked China\u2019s National Time Service Center over several years, the Chinese counter-espionage agency has claimed China has accused the US National Security Agency (NSA) of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t