China Alleges US Cyber Espionage Targeted National Time Service Center

• Cyber espionage allegations: China's State Security Ministry has accused the U.S. NSA of conducting a prolonged cyberattack operation.
• Critical infrastructure target: The facility maintains and broadcasts China's standard time, a critical function for communication, financial, and power grid networks.
• Sustained attack timeline: The ministry claims to have evidence of stolen data and credentials dating back to 2022 and further infiltration attempts in 2023 and 2024. 

China has publicly accused the U.S. of carrying out sustained cyber breaches against its National Time Service Center via a vulnerability in a foreign smartphone brand's messaging service in 2022 that enabled access to staff devices and spying on the center's network systems.

Potential Impact of National Time Service Center Breach

In a statement released on October 19, 2025, China's Ministry of State Security claimed that while tracing stolen data and credentials as far back as 2022, it found evidence that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) has been infiltrating the center's systems for an extended period.

NSA reportedly targeted the center's internal network systems and attempted to compromise the high-precision ground-based timing system in 2023 and 2024. It "exploited a vulnerability" in the messaging service of an unnamed foreign smartphone brand to access staff members' devices in 2022, the ministry alleged, cited by Reuters.

The National Time Service Center, part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is a piece of critical national infrastructure responsible for generating, maintaining, and broadcasting the country's official standard time, so a successful data breach of this facility could have severe consequences, potentially disrupting financial systems, power grids, and communication networks that rely on precise time synchronization. 

The Chinese ministry warned that the attacks also targeted the center's high-precision ground-based timing system, though the extent of any successful compromise has not been detailed.

Escalating US-China Cyber Relations

This accusation marks the latest development in the deteriorating U.S.-China cyber relations. Both nations have increasingly accused each other of conducting widespread cyber espionage campaigns targeting government, private sector, and critical infrastructure networks. 

While China has pointed to this specific incident as evidence of U.S. aggression, a U.S. embassy spokesperson reiterated the position that China remains the most persistent cyber threat to American networks. 

"China is the most active and persistent cyber threat to U.S. government, private-sector, and critical infrastructure networks," an embassy spokesperson told Reuters.

These reciprocal accusations occur amid ongoing trade tensions, further complicating the geopolitical landscape between the two global powers. 

On the other hand, the U.S. National Guard announced in July that it had been hacked by China's Salt Typhoon, which maintained access for almost one year.

Last week, cybersecurity firm F5 disclosed a security breach attributed to state-backed hackers reportedly linked to China. 

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