Recently, G disclosed that the NSA has launched major cyber attacks against China's timing system since 2022, attempting to disrupt the operation of critical infrastructure such as communication, finance, and energy by disrupting time benchmarks, and even affecting the international standard time order.

This incident also reveals a fact: time security has become a new front in the strategic game between major powers. The fundamental way to defend time security lies in achieving comprehensive and autonomous control from core components, system equipment to service networks, in order to strengthen the security protection of the timing system.

How important is 01 timing? Why did NSA choose to conduct cyber attacks here?

Timing, in layman's terms, refers to the publication of standard time. Calibrating mobile phones and watches in our daily lives is just the most basic application. The timing system in our country undertakes the task of generating, maintaining, and broadcasting "Beijing time". It is a nationally unified and highly accurate time source, and a "hidden cornerstone" to ensure the efficient operation of society.

However, the significance of timing goes far beyond that. It is like the "heartbeat" of the digital age, once disrupted or inaccurate, it will trigger a series of catastrophic chain reactions. Industry experts point out that even a small time deviation can lead to serious consequences:

The time difference of milliseconds can cause chaos in the timing of the substation, resulting in widespread power outages; The time difference is microseconds, and there may be hundreds of billions of changes in international stock market trading; The time difference of nanoseconds will cause a 30 centimeter difference in the positioning accuracy of Beidou, which will also affect people's daily communication. Radio carriers cannot be synchronized, and mobile phone calls and internet access cannot be achieved; The time difference is picoseconds, and there may be a deviation of several kilometers between the lunar soil collection vehicle and the Chang'e spacecraft's positioning, which may prevent Chang'e from successfully returning.

Therefore, the strategic intention of the NSA's attack is very clear: to paralyze the country's "sense of time" and plunge the entire social operation, economic activities, and national defense security into global chaos.

At the same time, this attack once again serves as a warning to us that time security is an important component of national security. To achieve time security, the fundamental solution lies in achieving autonomous and controllable core technologies to strengthen the security protection of the timing system.

02 Guarding 'Beijing Time', Saisi has been taking action

In the face of increasingly complex threats in cyberspace, as one of the few domestic companies that simultaneously serves the clock synchronization of the three major operators, Saisi has been laying out the entire industry chain layout around "time source timing end timing end time-frequency chip" since 2018, using independent technology to build the time security foundation of key infrastructure and achieve comprehensive reinforcement and collaborative protection of all links in the timing system.

1. Autonomy of core components

Clock chip: Saisi's self-developed SOC chip that supports Beidou time-frequency synchronization, with performance (jitter<200 femtoseconds), has been recognized by CCTV as a special and innovative product of the year. At the same time, we have independently developed clock chip products such as 5G clock generators to fill the gap in the field;

The comprehensive rise of domestically produced crystal oscillators: Saisi's domestically produced crystal oscillator series has passed component localization testing and obtained nearly ten certifications, becoming a core supplier in key fields such as 5G/6G communication, radar, satellite navigation, etc.

Breakthrough in chip atomic clock technology: Based on the principle of coherent population and MEMS technology, a miniaturized and low-power chip atomic clock has been launched, successfully replacing imported products and applied in environmental scenarios such as CNOOC deep-sea exploration.

2. Localization of timing equipment and Beidou technology

Saisi fully adopts the Beidou satellite navigation system as the time source, promoting the localization and Beidou transformation of its entire product line, including NTP/PTP time servers, master-slave clock systems, synchronous clocks, Beidou common view equipment, satellite intelligent branching systems, spatiotemporal security isolation devices, etc., covering differentiated accuracy requirements in various industries ranging from "microseconds milliseconds nanoseconds picoseconds".

And the series of clock systems have deeply empowered the 5G synchronous network, over 70% of the national backbone network and ultra-high voltage power grid in more than 30 provinces across the country, and provided reliable timing guarantees for a series of major projects such as the South to North Water Diversion Project, the Three Gorges Project, the West to East Water Diversion Project, and the East to West Calculation Project. At the same time, the service covers more than 100 financial institutions and over 50% of new subway projects and other livelihood infrastructure projects across the country, gradually building an independent and controllable global security synchronization network.

3. Customization of Industry Solutions

Based on independently innovated FPGA timing and delivery algorithms, profound hardware design skills, deep customized software development capabilities, and experience in large-scale time-frequency networking and management, Saisi can tailor a full chain time-frequency synchronization solution from devices to systems for various industries, and build a secure and trustworthy time-frequency network.

03 Guarding Time Sovereignty, Guarding the Heartbeat of Digital China

With the deepening of the construction of Digital China, high-precision time synchronization has become a core element supporting the digital economy, intelligent manufacturing, and future society. The NSA attack incident reminds us that time security is not only related to technological autonomy, but also to national sovereignty.

In this competition concerning 'time sovereignty', only by adhering to technological self-reliance and strengthening the protection capabilities of time-frequency infrastructure comprehensively can we firmly grasp the initiative of the digital age.

Saisi will continue to deepen technological innovation, optimize the layout of the entire industry chain of "time source timing end timing end time-frequency chip", safeguard China's "time sovereignty", and make every "heartbeat" of China precise and powerful.