China says the U.S. used dozens of 'special cyberattack weapons' on the country's time

China on Sunday accused the U.S. National Security Agency of carrying out cyberattacks on its national time center, saying any damage to related facilities could have disrupted network communications, financial systems and power supply.

The Ministry of State Security alleged that the U.S. 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 Center’s staff in 2022. It did not specify the brand.

The U.S. agency also used 42 types of “special cyberattack weapons” to target the center’s multiple internal network systems and attempted to infiltrate a key timing system between 2023 and 2024, it said in a post on WeChat, a Chinese social media platform.

The ministry said it