NSA alleged to have launched a cyber attack on a China agency
Published by RawNews1st
China’s claim that the US National Security Agency (NSA) was behind a cyber attack against the country’s timekeeping centre could be true, says an expert.
He was commenting on a post last week on WeChat from China’s Ministry of National Security saying, “national security authorities uncovered a major cyber attack case in the United States and obtained irrefutable evidence that the National Security Agency launched a cyber attack and invaded China’s National Time Service Center.
“From a technical perspective, China’s allegation about an NSA hack on its national timekeeping center is plausible and aligns with known US cyber capabilities,” Jeff Bardin, chief intelligence officer at US-based Treadstone 71, told CSO on Monday.
But, he added, “without public evidence it’s hard to confirm conclusively.”
The public affairs section of China’s Washington, D.C. embassy confirmed to CSO that the post “is from China’s security authorities.” The allegation is also repeated on the Chinese embassy’s X feed.
The timekeeping center “provides high-precision timing services to the nation’s communications, finance, power, transportation, surveying and mapping, defense, and other sectors, and provides crucial data support for the calculation of international standard time,” the post says.
A cyber attack “would impact the secure and stable operation of ‘Beijing Time,’” says the post, referring to the country’s single time zone.
An attack, the post says, would lead “to serious consequences such as network communication failures, financial system disruptions, power outages, transportation disruptions, and space launch failures. It could even cause chaos in international time, resulting in incalculable damage and losses.”
The WeChat post alleges that, starting on March 25, 2022, “the NSA exploited a vulnerability in the SMS service of an overseas mobile phone brand to covertly attack and gain control of the mobile phones of multiple NSC staff members, stealing sensitive data stored within them.”
