China accuses US of cyber attack on national time centre

The ministry of state security said the National Time Service Centre was responsible for generating and distributing China’s standard time (Mark Schiefelbein/AP)

China has accused the US national security agency of carrying out cyber attacks on its national time centre following an investigation, saying any damage to related facilities could have disrupted network communications, financial systems and power supply.

The ministry of state security alleged in a WeChat post that the US agency had exploited vulnerabilities in the messaging services of a foreign mobile phone brand to steal sensitive information from devices of the National Time Service Centre’s staff in 2022. It did not specify the brand.