US' scheme to disrupt Beijing Time exposed

China's national security agency revealed on Sunday that the United States National Security Agency has long plotted cyberattacks against the National Time Service Center, which is responsible for generating and maintaining standard Beijing Time.

Such attacks 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 the latest investigations.

Located in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, the center provides high-precision time services crucial for national communications, finance, electricity, transportation, mapping and defense sectors. Besides causing severe disruptions in China, such cyberattacks could lead to international time chaos with incalculable consequences, the agency said in a post on its official WeChat account.

Wei Dong, deputy director of the general office at the center, said a time discrepancy of just one millisecond can disrupt the sequencing of power substations, leading to widespread blackouts. A difference of one microsecond could result in fluctuations worth billions in international stock markets.

"Furthermore, a nanosecond discrepancy, which is one-billionth of a second, can reduce the positioning accuracy of the Beidou Navigation Satellite System by 30 centimeters and impact everyday communications. And a one-trillionth of a second could cause several kilometers of deviation in the positioning of lunar soil collection vehicles and the Chang'e spacecraft, potentially preventing it from returning successfully," Wei told China Central Television.

On March 25, 2022, the US NSA began exploiting a vulnerability in a foreign cellphone brand's messaging service to covertly control the mobile devices of several center workers, stealing sensitive information stored on those phones.

In addition, on April 18, 2023, the agency started using stolen login credentials to infiltrate the center's computer systems and probe its network infrastructure, according to the investigations.

Chinese authorities managed to resolve both infiltrations.

Between August 2023 and June 2024, the NSA deployed a new cyberwarfare platform, using 42 specialized cyberattack tools to launch high-intensity attacks on the center's multiple internal network systems, attempting to infiltrate the High-Precision Ground-Based Timing System.

Furthermore, the Chinese national security agency 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 origins of the attacks. The attackers also forged digital certificates to bypass antivirus software and used strong encryption algorithms to erase traces of the attacks, the investigations found.

Li Jianhua, a cybersecurity expert and professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, said the attacks are typical of an advanced persistent threat carried out by a state or state-sponsored group.

"The move aims to remotely monitor or even sabotage key infrastructure and information systems. It poses a grave threat to targeted countries in the era of globalization," Li told CCTV.

After the national security agency discovered and collected evidence of the cyberattacks from the US, it guided the center to upgrade preventive measures and eliminate potential hazards, the post said.

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.

They have infiltrated critical infrastructure, stolen vital intelligence and eavesdropped on key individuals, flagrantly infringing on other nations' cyber sovereignty and personal privacy, posing a severe threat to global cybersecurity. The US also frequently uses its technical bases in Taiwan and countries such as the Philippines and Japan to launch cyberattacks, aiming to conceal its identity and shift blame onto others.

Meanwhile, the US hypocritically hypes the "China cyber threat theory", the post said, adding that the undeniable facts prove the US has become the true "hacker empire "and the greatest source of instability in cyberspace.

cuijia@chinadaily.com.cn