- China has accused the US of cyber espionage
- China’s National Time Service Center was breached through security flaws in employee phones
- The two states have been pointing fingers at each other for years regarding various cyber incidents
China has accused the United States of infiltrating its National Time Service Center, exploiting vulnerabilities in employee phones to steal login credentials, hacking computers and exfiltrating information.
China says it has “irrefutable evidence” that the US National Security Agency (NSA) accessed stolen credentials and used them to breach central network systems as far back as 2022.
China warns that these serious incidents may have disrupted financial systems, power supplies, communication networks and international standard time.
Protective measures
The National Time Center is a research institute responsible for generating and distributing the official standard time and providing accurate timing for the communications, finance, electricity, transport and defense industries – any disruption that could have a serious impact on the daily lives of citizens.
It is not yet clear what the ‘irrefutable evidence’ is that China claims to have, nor has it been revealed exactly what information was stolen in the attack – but national security officials have said their investigations reveal that private servers around the world were used to hide the source of the attacks.
The two nations have a long history of accusing each other of cyber intrusions, with the NSA recently coming under fire specifically for allegations that it attacked Chinese critical infrastructure such as communications, transportation and energy services.
To outline the extent of the cat and mouse game between the two states; In August 2025, the NSA warned that Chinese tech firms may have had links to cyber espionage group Salt Typhoon, which targeted hundreds of companies, lurking on networks and exfiltrating information.
Lui Pengyu, spokesman for the Chinese Embassy told TechRadar Pro, “Cyber attacks are a common threat faced by all countries, including China. China strongly opposes and combats all forms of cyber attacks and cyber crimes – a position that is consistent and clear. At the same time, we are also strongly opposed to smearing others without solid evidence.”
Via: Bloomberg
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