China has accused the United States of stealing sensitive data and infiltrating its National Time Service Centre, warning that such breaches could have disrupted communications, financial systems, power supplies, and the international standard time network.
In a statement posted on its WeChat account on Sunday, China’s Ministry of State Security alleged that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) had conducted a prolonged cyberattack against the National Time Service Centre.
According to the ministry, investigators uncovered evidence of stolen data and login credentials dating back to 2022, which were allegedly used to monitor staff mobile devices and network systems at the centre.
The ministry claimed that the NSA “exploited a vulnerability” in the messaging app of an unnamed foreign smartphone brand to gain access to employees’ devices in 2022.
The National Time Service Centre, part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is responsible for producing, maintaining, and distributing China’s official standard time.
The ministry also said that the U.S. carried out further attacks on the centre’s internal networks and attempted to target its high-precision ground-based timing systems in 2023 and 2024.
The U.S. embassy in Beijing did not respond directly to the allegations but countered that China-based cyber actors have compromised major American and global telecommunications networks to conduct extensive espionage operations.
“China remains the most active and persistent cyber threat to U.S. government, private-sector, and critical infrastructure networks,” a spokesperson for the embassy said in an email to Reuters.
The two countries have increasingly exchanged cyber-espionage accusations in recent years, each branding the other as its principal digital adversary.
The latest claims come amid escalating trade tensions, following China’s tighter controls on rare earth exports and Washington’s warning that it could impose additional tariffs on Chinese products.
Regional powers gathered in Moscow on Monday for talks on Afghanistan, focusing on security, economic cooperation and Kabul’s relations with ...
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan held talks in Tehran on Monday on bilateral ties and efforts t...
Four major German political foundations have halted their work in Georgia as tighter rules on foreign grants put pressure on a decades-old partners...
Iran's Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad has resigned, with Hamid Bovard, chief executive of the state-owned National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), appointed as acting oil minister, according to Iranian state media.
Right-wing Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro will face leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in a runoff of the presidential election later this month, after he exceeded expectations in Sunday's first-round vote with a slight lead over the incumbent.
Candidates elected to Bosnia and Herzegovina's three-member presidency declared victory after preliminary unofficial results showed Denis Becirovic leading the Bosniak seat, Darijana Filipovic ahead in the Croat seat and Zeljka Cvijanovic likely retaining the Serb seat.
Uzbekistan’s grape exports have grown rapidly. In January-August 2025, the country exported 86,200 tonnes of fresh grapes worth $78.3 million to 19 countries but can it turn these crops into a recognisable international product?
Iran says the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed until the United States meets seven conditions agreed under a June memorandum, as President Donald Trump signals he may soon decide whether to resume military operations against Tehran.
A four-person crew aboard SpaceX's Crew-13 mission, consisting of two U.S. astronauts, a Canadian astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut, arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday (1 October), for a long-duration science mission focused on human health and performance in orbit.
The European Space Agency (ESA), Airbus and European partners have put a six-wheeled Mars rover prototype through its paces in Spain’s Tabernas desert, simulating conditions expected on a future mission to the Red Planet.
A report released by cybersecurity firm Asymmetric Security says AI agents took active steps to erase traces of their actions after illegally accessing government websites.
Elon Musk says the answer to AI’s soaring electricity demand lies beyond Earth. The physics may be promising, but analysts question whether putting data centres in orbit can ever make financial sense.
OpenAI has cancelled plans to release GPT-6.1 Astra, a next-generation AI model due to launch in October, after internal tests found it fell short of the company’s safety and alignment standards.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment