Preliminary
While the world is still discussing the surface of China-US technology competition, the National Security Agency (NSA) has long torn off the disguise, using a covert cyber attack that lasts for years. The black hand is stretched directly to the "time lifeline" operating in Chinese society - the national timing center.
This attack is not only lowly in means and targeted precisely, but also hides a terrible attempt to paralyze China’s key industries, and the details of its disclosure let everyone see the false face of America’s so-called “cyber security.”
Little-known "invisible heart"
Per many people don’t know what the National Time Centre really means?
It is not a simple "time telling organization", but an "invisible heart" located in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province and supporting the normal operation of China as a whole.
You go out and take the high-speed rail every day, and the dispatch system needs the precise time it provides to ensure that there is no rear-end collision;
You use your mobile phone to scan the QR code to pay, and the timestamp of financial transactions depends on it to ensure that there is no confusion;
Even if the lights at home can be stably on, power grid regulation is inseparable from the nanosecond time synchronization it gives.
Simply put, It is China's "national clock", with the accuracy of every second, all involved in the normal operation of communications, finance, electricity, transportation and even defense systems.Once something goes wrong, the chain reaction will affect the lives of hundreds of millions of ordinary people.
The NSA's attack on this "heart" showed carefully planned malice from the very beginning.
In March 2022, they did not choose a positive breakthrough, but first took the hand from "people".Look at it. Time service center staffUsing a text messaging service vulnerability that many people use on a daily basis for overseas branded phones, the first gap is quietly opened.
At first, they just secretly stole sensitive information from their mobile phones, such as staff's work chats, schedules, and even some undisclosed system operating procedures.
As these "fragmented information" accumulated, the NSA became more and more daring. They used stolen information to try to crack staff members 'office account passwords.
The whole process is like a hot water cooking frog. Step by step from mobile phone terminal to internal computer system of timing center, the whole process was quiet, and until the national security agencies intervened, it maintained a high degree of concealment.
The US NSA’s move is nothing more than putting a “time bomb” in the timing system.
In order not to be discovered, the NSA's methods can be called "extremely cunning."
They specially picked late night to early morning Beijing time to start work. During this time period, most of the staff were resting, and the pressure on the system's real-time monitoring was relatively small, which gave them an opportunity to take advantage of it;
At the same time, they also hide real IP addresses through layered virtual private servers (VPNs), as if they wrapped the attack pathway in a "hidden mantle", making tracking work unusually difficult.
What's even more frightening is that, NSA's goal has never been to "steal some information and leave". After they infiltrated the system, they immediately activated as many as 42 special cyber attack weapons.
While launching a large-scale network attack and defense jamming system to operate normally, it tried to drill into a more core high-precision ground-based timing system and quietly preset the paralysis function.
This is equivalent to planting a "ticking time bomb" in the "heart" of others. If they want to, the entire timing system can be shut down at any time.
No one dares to imagine how serious the consequences would be if this "bomb" was triggered.
The power system will be the first to "fall": power grid regulation needs precise time synchronization to nanoseconds, once the time signal is chaotic, the power distribution of different regions will be completely out of control, The city may have large areas of power outages, factory shutdowns, hospital equipment shutdowns, and ordinary people cannot guarantee even basic life electricity.
Then came the collapse of the financial market: in high-frequency trading, every microsecond timestamp cannot be wrong. Even a small error may trigger a chain reaction and cause investors to suffer incalculable losses. Even affect the stability of the entire financial system;
The transportation system will be paralyzed: high-speed rail dispatching relies on time signals that are exact every second, and air traffic control is "not even a second short", and time is chaotic. High-speed trains could be trapped, flights could be delayed or deviated from the route, and the safety of countless people could be directly threatened.
More shockingly, the NSA has also specifically selected key nodes "down the hand" at the crucial moment of the launch and return of Chang'e 6, they launched an intense offensive.
To know, the lunar probe's time accuracy requirements reached the microsecond level, the error of 1 microsecond, will make the probe on the moon deviate from the radius of action of 30 meters, once the time signal is interfered, the entire lunar mission may be due to the heart of countless researchers will be paid to the eaststream.
The United States is aware that the time center is a civilian facility serving the people's livelihood, but even such a bottom line is ignored, completely ignoring the principle of protection of civilian infrastructure by international regulations. Such an act is even more despicable than pure military confrontation.
This storm has reminded everyone
In fact, this is not the first time that the United States has exposed the true nature of the "Matrix".
Early in In 2013, the Snowden incident revealed that the United States did not even let go of its allies, and senior officials from Germany, France, the Netherlands and other countries had been under surveillance by the United States for a long time.
This attack on China's timing center, the ambition of the United States is more, they are no longer content with "theft of secrecy", but rather want to master the pulse of global information flow by controlling the core variable "time", weakening China's competitiveness in key areas.
After all, whoever has the control of the precise time system, whoever is equivalent to holding the "switch" of the operation of modern society, the calculator of the United States, played inexpensively, but also inferior and reproachable.
China's national security agencies did not ignore, and after discovering the abnormality, they immediately put all their efforts, while resisting the ongoing cyber attacks, while following the traces of the attack and reverse tracking, In the end, not only did he successfully repel the NSA hackers, but he also collected key evidence enough to prove his evil deeds, making this secret invasion invisible.
This wave is also a wake-up point for everyone: cybersecurity is never a "far-off" thing, it is hidden in our daily phones, computers, in every seemingly ordinary information transmission.
Now looking back at this offensive defensive battle around "time", the most cautious, those we are accustomed to "external technology dependency".
NSA can easily succeed. The initial breakthrough is just an ordinary overseas brand mobile phone. Who can guarantee that there will be no similar "security vulnerabilities" hidden in other overseas electronic devices we use daily?
For the country, it has become a must to increase independent research and development of key technologies, such as high-precision timing systems and network protection technologies, and reduce dependence on external technologies;
For ordinary people, it is also very important to improve security awareness. Don't click on unfamiliar text messages at will, regularly change accounts and passwords, and try to choose safe and reliable devices. These seemingly small actions are actually contributing to national information security. Brick tiles.
conclusion
The United States thinks that through covert attacks it can control “time” and suppress China’s development, but it forgets that China is never an object of manipulation.
Although this attack exposes the risks, it also makes it clearer to us that in this cyber war without smoke, only we are strong enough to protect our own "time lifeline" and keep the peace of life of millions of people.
And those who try to destroy by despicable means will only make their "Matrix" notorious in the end and expose it more thoroughly to the whole world!
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