The President's Daily Brief - PDB Afternoon Bulletin | August 16th, 2024: Mossad Agents Exposed? & Social Security Numbers Stolen

Episode Date: August 16, 2024

In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin:    The White House is pushing back on a controversial report claiming the Biden administration secretly sent a delegation to Iran to appease the Islamic regime following the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. We’ll discuss a major breach of U.S. cybersecurity, where hackers may have recently stolen the personal information and social security number of every American. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin.     Email: [e-mail].  Blackout Coffee: https://www.blackoutcoffee.com/PDB Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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First, the White House is pushing back on a controversial... report, claiming that the Biden administration secretly sent a delegation to Iran to appease the Islamic regime following the assassination of Hamas leader Ishmael Hanyi. Also, we'll discuss a major breach of U.S. cybersecurity, where hackers may have recently stolen the personal information and social security number of, get this, every American. But first, our afternoon spotlight. We'll begin with an extremely fluid situation regarding the U.S., Israel, and Iran, and alleged efforts by the Biden administration to appease the Islamic regime at the expense of Israel,

following the killing of Hamas leader Ishmael Hanyi two weeks ago in a suspected Mossad bombing. Now, a report that originated from a Fox News article and was later picked up by the Jerusalem Post on Wednesday, claimed that a high-ranking American security delegation used media, in Oman to secretly travel to the Iranian city of Karaj last Thursday for a two-hour sit-down with Iranian officials. The articles cited the Kuwaiti newspaper Algerida, which claimed to have spoken to an anonymous source in Iran's Supreme National Security Council. Both Fox News and the Jerusalem Post reported that the delegation allegedly sought to deliver a, quote, good faith message to leaders in Tehran that would be able to de-escalate simmering regional tensions

between Iran and Israel. The report generated, well, let's just say a lot of controversy, as it claimed the delegation told Iran that the Biden-Harris administration was, quote, kept in the dark by Israel regarding the assassination. Now, bizarrely, the report alleged that the delegation presented a list with the names of 10 Mossad agents inside Iran who the U.S. believes were involved in the killing. And here I'm going to place my own comment. I find that part of the report to be extremely unlikely. And by that, I mean, it didn't happen. And it's a definite red flag if you're assessing the credibility of this information in the report.

This should be the sort of information that sets off alarm bells when you're reading it. And we should note that the report generated immediate skepticism from regional experts, many of whom suspected it was Iranian disinformation. There you go. The Biden administration was slow to react to the initial report, however, prompting Republican U.S. Senator Ted Cruz to say on Wednesday, quote, I pray this is not true. If Joe Biden and Kamala Harris actually gave the Ayatollah the names of undercover Mossad agents in Iran, it would be a level of betrayal of Israel and America difficult to fathom, end quote. All right, on Wednesday evening,

officials with the U.S. National Security Council strongly denied the reports in a statement of the Jerusalem Post, saying, quote, this is categorically false. Other experts subsequently jumped in to say that it's very likely, and by that I mean it is, an Iranian disinformation effort designed to drive a wedge between the U.S. and leaders in Jerusalem as the Islamic regime continues to mull over their retaliation plans against Israel. Many noted that the original sourcing was a paper in Kuwait citing Iran's Supreme National Security Council, and that probably would not be considered an honest broker. Jason Brodsky, policy director at United Against nuclear Iran, said he did not believe the story, adding, quote, I think the Iranian sourcing for the

report is disinformation aimed to increase polarization in the U.S., as well as fissures between Israel and the U.S. Journalist Yashir Ali also criticized the story saying, quote, it is so absurd and irresponsible to publish this nonsense, especially given the sourcing and where it's been picked up from, end quote. We should add, as of Thursday morning, Fox News had taken down their article, and the Jerusalem Post has updated their story to reflect the firm denial from the U.S. National Security Council. Now, I do think it's important to highlight stories like this.

The level of disinformation and misinformation that exists out of the media and social media and generally online is stunning, and it's only getting worse. And much of it is the work of hostile foreign actors, particularly the Russian regime, the Chinese regime, and of course, Iran. It is increasingly important for every person to be more critical and skeptical of the information that you consume. You have to ask yourself, what's the actual sourcing, just how credible is it? Has it been corroborated elsewhere? Particularly with the November election in the U.S. just over the horizon, it is critically important for you to take the time to verify the accuracy of what you're reading, watching, and listening to.

All right. Coming up after the break, we'll discuss a major breach of U.S. cybersecurity, where hackers may have recently stolen the personal information and social security number of every American. Seriously, every American. That's a lot of people. I'll be right back. This episode is brought to you by Redfin. You're listening to a podcast, which means you're probably multitasking,

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a radiant expression of joy, ultra-concentrated for amplified impact and lasting power. Find your euphoria. Discover the euphoria elixir collection by Calvin Klein. Welcome back to the afternoon bulletin. A new lawsuit alleges that a massive data breach exposed the personal information of countless individuals, including sensitive data such as addresses, dates of birth, names of family members, and get this, potentially the Social Security numbers of every American. If misused, well, this information, for example, could obviously allow fraudsters to access financial accounts

or take out loans in the victim's names. The class action lawsuit alleges that the hacking group, U.S. DoD, stole records from national public data, and that's a company that provides personal information to employers, private investigators, and others, for background checking purposes. The breach allegedly occurred in April, but the lawsuit was only filed this month. Now, the lawsuit claims that USDOD, the hacking group, posted a database containing approximately

2.9 billion, that's with a B, personal records on the dark web, initially attempting to sell the data for $3.5 million. U.S.D.D. then leaked the information for free on a hacker forum, as reported by bleeping computer, and that's a news agency that specializes in cybersecurity. Now, this database, it's a gold mine, more like a shopping bazaar or an open-air market for criminals. It's packed with a vast array of personal information, each containing a full name, address, data, births, social security number, and phone numbers, and it's all unencrypted. The treasuredrove of data can obviously enable criminals to engage in a variety of fraudulent activities, including identity theft, financial fraud, and social engineering attacks. Now, to make matters worse, the lawsuit claims that national public data hasn't warned those impacted by the breach.

Well, that would seem to be a serious mistake on their part because I do believe that Crisis Communications 101 says to admit your mistake and be proactive in resolving the issue. Not telling millions of people that their personal data may be for sale now on the dark web is probably not the way to go here. Teresa Murray, the Consumer Watchdog Director for the U.S. Public Information Research Group, described the situation as a, quote, five-alarm wake-up call for consumers to take protective measures. Experts urge consumers to take immediate action to protect themselves, and one key recommendation is to freeze credit files at the three major credit bureaus, that would be Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion, to prevent bad actors from taking out loans or opening credit cards

in the names. Additionally, consumers are advised to use tracking services that monitor the dark web for their personal information and to implement two-a-factor authentication on all accounts just to enhance security. Or maybe, here's just a thought, maybe it's time to pull the plug on the internet and go back to paper and pencils and fax machines and beepers. But I guess that would make me a Luddite, which of course, Luddite is the BDB word of the day. And that, my friends, is the PDB afternoon bulletin for Friday, 16 August. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at PDB at thefirsttv.com. And, as you may have heard from your favorite celebrities, to listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of the president's daily brief by visiting PDB premium.com.

Not to mention, although I believe I'm about to, that every Friday, which I believe today is, We also launch a new episode of our extended weekend show. That's the PDB Situation Report, every Friday evening at 10 p.m. on the first TV, as well as on our critically acclaimed and perhaps one-day award-winning YouTube channel, at President's Daily Brief, and also all podcast platforms. I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back over the weekend with our Situation Report. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool. Some follow the noise.

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