Ministry exposes US plot to tamper with Beijing Time

China's national security agency revealed on Sunday that the United States National Security Agency (NSA) has, since 2022, launched cyberattacks against the National Time Service Center, which is responsible for generating and maintaining standard Beijing Time. Such an attack could jeopardize the secure and stable operation of Beijing Time, potentially causing network communication failures, financial system disruptions, power outages, transportation paralysis, and even space launch failures, according to investigations by the Ministry of State Security.

Located in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, the National Time Service Center provides precision time services crucial for national communications, finance, electricity, transportation, mapping and defense sectors. Besides causing severe disruptions in China, such cyberattacks could have a cascading effect, leading to international time chaos with incalculable consequences, the agency said in a WeChat official account post.

Beginning on March 25, 2022, the NSA exploited a vulnerability in a foreign cellphone brand's messaging service to covertly control the mobile devices of several center staff, stealing sensitive information stored on their phones. From April 18, 2023, according to the investigations, the NSA repeatedly used stolen login credentials to infiltrate the center's computer systems and launch probes into its network infrastructure.

Between August 2023 and June 2024, the NSA attempted to infiltrate the High-Precision Ground-Based Timing System by deploying a new cyber warfare platform that uses 42 specialized cyberattack tools to launch high-intensity attacks on several of the center's internal network systems.

The Chinese national security agency also found that the NSA often initiated attacks during Beijing's late-night to early-morning hours, using virtual private servers in the US, Europe and Asia to obscure the origin of the attacks. The US deployed tactics such as forging digital certificates to bypass antivirus software and used strong encryption algorithms to erase evidence of their attacks, according to the investigation.

After the national security agency discovered and collected evidence of the cyberattacks from the US, they then guided the center to upgrade preventive measures to safeguard against future attacks.

In recent years, the US has aggressively pursued cyber hegemony, repeatedly violating international cyberspace norms, the post said. Led by the NSA, US intelligence agencies have recklessly conducted cyberattacks against China, Southeast Asia, Europe and South America, it said.

The US has infiltrated critical infrastructure, stolen vital intelligence and eavesdropped on key individuals, flagrantly infringing on other nations' cyber sovereignty and personal privacy, which poses a severe threat to global cybersecurity. The US also frequently uses its technical bases in the Taiwan and foreign countries like the Philippines and Japan to launch cyberattacks, aiming to conceal its identity and maintain plausible deniability.

While the US hypocritically accuses others by hyping the "China cyber threat theory", the undeniable facts prove that the US has become the true "hacker empire" and is the greatest source of cyberspace instability, the report said.