The President's Daily Brief - February 15th, 2023. Can Your Electric Vehicle Be Hacked, Crashed, and Held for Ransom?

Episode Date: February 15, 2023

It’s February 15th. You’re listening to the President’s Daily Brief. Your morning intel starts now. ------ A good day to you, ladies and gentlemen. I’ve got four briefs for you this morning that are shaping America — and the world. First, Ford Motor Company has halted production of their electric pickup truck because of a battery issue. We’ll talk about that, plus how Ford has a new source of cobalt for those batteries when they work.  Second, and speaking of electric vehicles, cyber experts are sounding the alarm this morning about electric cars getting hacked and then crashed, and held for ransom all by cyber criminals.  Third, the new Democrat Governor of Arizona is confirming that she will continue bussing illegal migrants all around the country. Her fellow Democrats aren’t happy about that. Fourth, a recent study about coffee actually tells us something interesting about the mind’s ability to heal the body. Later, we close out the podcast with a listener saying that Bryan is Wrong. Yes, I am wrong about the possibility that Joe Biden is compromised by China. So I’ll respond to that, asking you to think like a spy.  ----- Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of the President's Daily Brief. Email: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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I'm your host and former CIA officer Brian Dean Wright. Your morning Intel starts now. Hey, good day to you, ladies and gentlemen. I've got four briefs for you this morning that are shaping America and the world. First, a Ford Motor Company has halted production of their electric pickup truck because of a battery issue. We'll talk about that. Plus, how Ford has a new source of cobalt for those batteries when they work. Second, and speaking of electric vehicles, cyber experts are sounding the alarm this morning

about electric cars getting hacked and then crashed or held for ransom, all by cyber criminals. Third, the new Democrat governor of Arizona is confirming that she will continue busing illegal migrants all around the country. Her fellow Democrats are not happy about that. Fourth, a recent study about coffee actually tells us something very interesting about the mind's ability to heal the body. Later, we close out the podcast with a listener saying that Brian is wrong. Yes, I am wrong about the possibility that Joe Biden is compromised by China.

So I will respond to that by asking you to think like a spy. But before we get to that, we got to get started with this. Ford Motor Company has halted production of their electric pickup truck this morning, the F-150 Lightning. Apparently, it's got a battery problem. So here's what we know. Late last week, Ford halted all production and shipments of their electric pickup trucks, which are actually pretty popular.

They sold around 15,000 units last year and actually have a waiting list of 200,000. Well, unfortunately, those folks will have to keep waiting. Ford says they were conducting pre-shipment inspections of these lightning pickup trucks and came across at least one with a battery issue, although no details on what exactly that issue might be. Now, it could be that the battery was made in China, and Ford feels bad about that. Okay, I'm kidding. I'm getting sassy. But actually, that brings up another very important update on the source of minerals inside that battery,

and not just in Ford's batteries, but in all electric vehicles. So as PDB listeners know, most of these cars use lithium-ion batteries that contain a very critical amount of a mineral called cobalt. And that supply of cobalt is almost entirely mined in the African-country. of the Congo, around 70 to 80%, give or take, with upwards of one-third of that supply mined by children. It's a horrific part of the electric vehicle or EV revolution that's really hard to tackle because of that limited number of cobalt mines and refineries around the world.

As just one example, the United States only opened its very first cobalt mine in over 30 years, about five months ago, and that is in the state of Idaho, although the mineral is going to have to be shipped abroad to be refined first and then brought back. Well, this morning we've got an update on that very dirty problem of dirty cobalt. The country of Indonesia has just increased its production of the mineral, moving up two spots past Australia and Russia, making it the world's second largest producer of cobalt right behind the Congo. That's according to recent U.S. government data.

Now, this development is not an accident. As PDB listeners will recall, Indonesia is already one of the world's most important suppliers of other dirty green minerals like copper and nickel. In fact, the government is trying to create a nickel cartel to help control production and profit, much like OPEC members do with oil. So Indonesia, then, is trying to become a major player in a dirty green revolution, from the minerals to the refining and battery production. In fact, according to Bloomberg news, Indonesia is announcing new mines or expansion of existing mines,

about once every three months. although I should note something on that. It's not technically Indonesia making these announcements. It's the Chinese companies that control the mines, along with the refineries and the battery factories. Again, mostly all owned and controlled by China. So as ever, the supply chain for these dirty green batteries remains outside of the U.S.,

although now there is this additional option of Indonesian cobalt for car companies who don't want to rely on that extra dirty stuff from the Congo. And yet, even still, all roads lead through Chinese ownership, whether it be the Congo cobalt mines, which are Chinese owned, or these Indonesian cobalt mines, also Chinese owned. And that, folks, is not going to change anytime soon. Speaking of the dirty green energy revolution this morning, let's stick with it, and let's talk about a new risk that we haven't talked about before. And it involves electric vehicles, specifically the risk of your car getting hacked.

The Wall Street Journal did a really wonderful summary of this threat recently, and to appreciate what they found, I want us to imagine that we are inside of our electric vehicle. We're driving down the road at 65 miles an hour on the highway. And as we look around inside the cabin of our car, what's clear is that this vehicle runs on electronics, especially computer chips and software of all kinds that control our vehicles. batteries, our motors, the climate system, cruise control, and even the ability to break and

accelerate. Now, you might be thinking, well, that's not really a big shock, Brian. Don't all new cars have fancy electronics like this? Well, yes, but mostly no, actually. Consider this. Traditional or gas-fueled cars have around 150 electronic control units in total, but electric vehicles or EVs, they've got over 3,000, and that's 3,000 different ways to hack our car. But let's get back into our imaginations. We're driving down that highway. Well, earlier in the morning, we remember that we plugged our car into a charger

at home, or maybe we stopped by a public fast charger on the way to work. Now, when we did that, and we reflect back on that stop, well, we plugged our car into a networked system, right? And that, in turn, sent information back and forth between our cars and the power charging systems, which are oftentimes tethered to the internet. Plus, our vehicle is often communicating wirelessly with, let's say, Tesla or Ford about the vehicle's performance with software updates or warnings. So you take all of that together, folks, and that's a problem, because that round-the-clock

connection opens up our electric vehicle to hacking by cybercriminals. So as we're driving down that road at 65 miles an hour, imagine that the car starts driving erratically, the steering, the acceleration, the braking, or the battery system starts to overheat and fire starts. And it's all because hackers have gained control of our vehicle through those software updates or at that power charging station. So those are the scenarios laid out by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, specifically a professor and a cybersecurity expert named Stuart Maddick. Now, what Mr. Maddoch and others know is that while the scariest scenario is having our cars hacked and crashed while we're inside, the far more likely scenario is something called

a ransomware attack. And the idea here is that when we go out to our electric vehicle one morning, let's say, and we try to turn that car on, instead of having a functional vehicle, we get a message on our display screen that says, you have been hacked, pay us $10,000, or we start your car on fire, or it never starts again. So these concerns, folks, are so real and so pressing that the U.S. Energy Department last year warned in a report that, quote, there is currently no comprehensive cybersecurity approach in the EV or charging industries, and quote, and they said that cyber attacks could slow electric vehicle or EV adoption. Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal is also reporting that the Biden administration actually held

a closed-door forum in October with auto manufacturers and others in the dirty green industry to start coordinating on stricter cyber controls because they see the threat too. So the bottom line, folks, is that electric vehicles and the ecosystem that surrounds them like these public charging stations, well, they're not designed to prioritize security. They were designed folks to instead offer reliability and safety and ease of use. And that's why that professor at MIT that I mentioned earlier named Mr. Maddock, he is predicting that we will have a major series of cyber attacks. that will force this industry to change,

much like we did when computers were first connected to the internet. In fact, he said, quote, sometimes we need a wake-up call before we change, end quote. Quite right. With that, ladies and gentlemen, let's take a quick break. When we come back, I've got two more critical pieces of news for you, so hang tight, and we will be right back. Kayak gets my flight, hotel, and rental car right,

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Welcome back to the PDB. I've got two more critical pieces of news for you this morning. On Sunday, the new Democrat governor of Arizona named Katie Hobbs confirmed that she's continuing the state's program of busing and even flying illegal migrants out of her state to, well, wherever they would look at. like to go. But she said, the difference between her approach and that of her Republican governor before her is, quote, that we are more humane, end quote, because she said, we are making sure that migrants aren't shipped to any old location, only the ones that they desire. All right, so here is

her full quote. Yeah, we've continued the program, but I think with a more humane and more efficient spin on it. This money for the busing was actually appropriated by the legislature, to specifically bus these legal asylum seekers. And so our decision was to get them where they need to go instead of just putting them on a bus to D.C., which is quite expensive, end quote. Well, it's the same cost that they want to go to D.C., but anyway, regardless, Governor Hobbs does have one reason to celebrate this morning. She's going to be spending a little less money on these busing programs.

That's because we got data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, saying the January numbers of illegal crossers were down from 221,000 in December to 128,000 last month. Now, part of that drop is due to seasonality, but also because the White House adopted policies previously embraced by Donald Trump and Republicans, even though, of course, Joe Biden and Democrats campaigned against Trump and those policies. I should note, of course, that not everybody in the Democrat Party is happy that the governor of Arizona and Joe Biden have apparently resurrected Trump's immigration policies. 80 Democrat lawmakers sent a letter to Biden a little over a week ago,

complaining about his sudden embrace of what they called Trump's policies. For instance, Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey said that it was like sending Jewish people back to Nazi Germany during World War II embracing these Trump policies. Meanwhile, fellow New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez said, quote, you cannot make America great again by making America hate. Finally, the lead socialist on Capitol Hill, that would be New York's Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, said, quote, this Biden administration is making it effectively impossible to seek refuge at our border. So, folks, there you have it.

The mess at the border continues, which is either a mess because we still have no effective southern border strategy, or, according to Senator Booker of New Jersey, it's a mess because because we are literally sending people back to Nazi gas chambers and such. Okay, well, I'll let you decide which of those two is more accurate. Finally, this morning, a very fascinating study about coffee that's actually not just about coffee. It's about the power of the human mind to heal. Researchers at the University of Sydney in Australia wanted to know if they could help people who are trying to kick the habit, the coffee habit, but they're struggling because of, of course,

withdrawal symptoms, things like headache and fatigue, bad mood, and irritability. So these researchers designed a little test. It was actually more of a trick, really, a lie. They took 61 heavy coffee drinkers and they starved them of their morning beverage, in other words, no caffeine. And they did that for 24 hours to induce withdrawal symptoms. And then they divided them into three groups. One group was given water to drink.

The other two were given. decaf, decavenated coffee, of course, but one group was told that the decaf was actually regular coffee. The researchers wanted to see if there was a difference of withdrawal symptoms between these two decaf groups, especially with the people that had been tricked, because, again, in their minds, they hadn't been. They were drinking regular coffee. Back to the old stuff. Well, the results came in after the study concluded, and it turns out that the tricked or duped drinkers, the ones that thought that they were drinking regular but actually were drinking decaf,

they reported far fewer withdrawal symptoms, even though they had actually had no caffeine and should have had the same symptoms as everybody else. So what is to explain this? Well, according to the researchers, it's the placebo effect. And that's when our mind is made or tricked into believing, well, it's healed itself or cured some sort of ailment, managed it at least. And we've long known about this placebo effect. We're just not real sure exactly how it worked.

But the point is, it does. And not just with coffee, according to researchers, what they're most interested in is whether this idea of placebo research and placebo medicine might actually apply to those addicted to more dangerous chemicals or drugs. Now, they said more research is necessary to figure that out, but they think this is pretty promising. And folks, this is why I flagged this study for you. because America spends billions of dollars researching and treating diseases of all kinds

with mostly standard drugs and therapies. And yet, the placebo effect gets so little attention or research, and that's a shame. How powerful would it be and how cheap would it be for people to harness the power of their minds to heal themselves? Now, it is true that the NIH in America has done a little bit of study on this placebo effect and perhaps how to harness it, but not a lot. In fact, far less than traditional drugs and therapies. So why is that, do you think?

Well, a cynic might say, there's not a lot of money to be made in healing oneself. There is, however, a lot of money in prescription drugs. Well, those cynics, they would say such a thing, wouldn't they? You can never trust them. I'm sure there's no connection there at all with money. And with that, ladies and gentlemen, we conclude. your morning brief.

But I've got one more thing before I let you go. We'll be right back. Get the most out of your vehicle with GM genuine parts and AC Delco original equipment. The only parts designed, engineered, tested, and backed by General Motors. You can find your perfect fit for most makes and models and choose from three tiers of parts,

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I got an email from John somewhere in America. And he thinks that I was wrong to suggest that Joe Biden could be an agent of the Chinese Communist Party. party. So here's what John said. Dear Brian, yes, Biden's words concerning China are weak, but look at his actions. He has continued Trump's tariffs. He's initiated an intel sharing agreement with Australia and the United Kingdom focused on China. He's limited China's access to advanced computer ships. He's got four new military bases in the Philippines to counter China. He's making plenty of trouble for Russia, which of course is China's ally. And, he's increased military aid to Taiwan. So if China paid Joe Biden, it is fair to say that Joe Biden double-crossed them. Joe Biden is increasing the pressure on Beijing. All right, there you have it. John, first of all, thank you.

Awesome note, totally fair points, and really a thoughtful way to lay that out. And I really appreciate it. But I do think that we could be missing something here. I think that you're assuming something, that isn't true in the world of espionage. And to properly understand it, I want you, I want all of us to put aside Joe Biden. And instead, let's do a little thought experiment. Let's imagine that you are a CIA officer. And you've just flown back from the field to CIA headquarters in Virginia.

And you, my friend, have just done the near impossible. You have just recruited the president of Iran, who has agreed to become a class. land-descent for America. Now, recruiting heads of states is an exceptionally rare thing. It's a once-in-a-lif-time event, if ever. So the question is, what do we ask this guy to do? Because the rest of the Iranian government absolutely hates America.

And if he shows weakness or deference to America, at best, there will be a power struggle, but at worst, they're going to kill him. So logically, then, you have to balance two things operationally. You need him to do stuff for America or against Iranian interests, but not too many things that would get him either sidelined or killed. So, John and everybody else, I want you to think about that operational balance and tension. How hard would you push our new Iranian asset? What would your goals be? And how long would you want this operation to go on?

So these are really big questions with no one right answer. but generally speaking, I'll tell you this. We would want the Iranian president to tell us one thing in particular. What are the plans and intentions regarding warfare and attacks, especially the usage of nuclear weapons? In other words, when would the Iranians use them, assuming, of course, that they have them, would they use them, on what targets, where are they located?

Would you, our asset in Iran, make the final call? And if not, who does? And what will we see from either satellites or phone calls that tell us that a launch is imminent? And finally, what discretion do you have in choosing or changing targets or the timing? Okay, with those questions answered, we've met our big operational goals. On the meantime, we know that he's going to be doing insane some pretty terrible things against America because he has to. He's the president of Iran.

So we cut him some slack. Yeah, so we expect that he will harm us to some degree, but in the end, the help that he gives us on these other issues will matter far more. So let's now think about Joe Biden or any other potentially compromised U.S. president or executive. If you were China and you recruited Mr. Biden, would you understand if he, say, continued tariffs or he limited access to computer chips, or he plunked down some military? military bases in the Philippines? Well, yeah, probably. Now, look, maybe you're not happy about all that, especially in this case the increased military aid to Taiwan, but ultimately it's okay because he's going to give you something far more important, especially during a time of war or attack. He's going to give you the war plans, say the hour or the day that it'll happen or how it'll happen, the weaknesses

of American forces, or that he will make decisions that working with you will put American forces in a weak position in battle. So look, this is a wild scenario, and I acknowledge as much, but recruiting heads of state is a wild business. And this idea that Biden couldn't possibly be compromised because he does some bad things directed at China, well, I just don't buy that argument based on what I know. Because that bad stuff, that's a lot. sometimes that's what we would expect a recruited head of state to do. So, John, what is most troubling to me is that the facts at hand show that the Biden family had multiple relationships with foreign governments that they have since tried to hide.

And to the point that Joe Biden denies to this day despite evidence to the contrary. We've got a laptop full of evidence. So to me, that line, I think actually most reasonable people feel the same. same way, it shows that he's a guilty man. Now, is he guilty of espionage? I don't know. But he's lying. And when your lies include your family's relationship with and secret cash payments from somebody that Hunter Biden called the, quote, spy chief of China? Well, then yes, espionage by the commander-in-chief is unfortunately but certainly on the table. And that ladies is, and gentlemen concludes your morning brief. As always, we close out the show, reminding each other

of why we are here, talking about our country and our world. It's the creed of every good spy and every smart American. It's from John, chapter 8, verse 32. And you shall know the truth. And the truth shall make you free. Good day.