China claims the NSA conducted cyberattacks on its national time center

China's State Security Ministry has accused the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) of conducting a cyberattack operation targeting the country's National Time Service Center between 2023 and 2024. The National Time Service Center, part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is responsible for generating, maintaining, and transmitting China's national standard of time, which is crucial for sectors like communications, defense, and finance. According to the Chinese agency, the NSA used around 42 types of "special cyberattack weapons" to infiltrate the center, which could have led to the disruption of network communications, financial systems, and power supply. The ministry also claimed that the NSA exploited vulnerabilities in a foreign mobile phone brand's messaging system to steal sensitive information from staff devices. The NSA has not yet responded to the accusation. Meanwhile, the U.S. Treasury Department has stated that it was targeted by a "China state-sponsored actor" in a cyberattack in December.