Attendees walk past an electronic display showing recent cyberattacks in China at the China Internet Security Conference in Beijing on September 12, 2017
CHINA has accused the US National Security Agency (NSA) of carrying out cyberattacks on its national time centre.
Chinese authorities said yesterday any damage to related facilities may have disrupted network communications, financial systems and power supply.
The Ministry of State Security alleged, in a WeChat post, that the US agency had exploited vulnerabilities in the messaging services of a foreign mobile phone brand to steal sensitive information from National Time Service Centre staff devices in 2022. It did not specify the brand.
The US agency also used 42 types of “special cyberattack weapons” to target the centre’s multiple internal network systems and attempted to infiltrate a key timing system between 2023 and 2024, it said.
It said it had evidence but did not provide it in the post.
The time centre is responsible for generating and distributing China’s standard time, providing related services to industries such as communications, finance, power, transport and defence.
Guidance has been provided to the centre to eliminate the risks.
“The US is accusing others of what it does itself, repeatedly hyping up claims about Chinese cyber threats,” state security said.
Western governments have alleged hackers linked to the Chinese government have targeted officials, journalists and corporations.
The US embassy did not immediately comment.
From anonymous surveys claiming Chinese students are spying on each other to a meltdown about the size of China’s London embassy, the evidence is everywhere that Britain is embracing full spectrum Sinophobia as the war clouds gather, writes CARLOS MARTINEZ
