The President's Daily Brief - PDB Afternoon Bulletin | December 31st, 2024: Chinese Hackers Breach US Treasury & The Taliban's Campaign Of 'Gender Apartheid'

Episode Date: December 31, 2024

In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin:   First, state-backed Chinese hackers have executed another major breach of sensitive U.S. networks, this time stealing a trove of documents from the U.S. Treasury Department. Then, we’ll look at the latest crackdown by the Taliban on woman in Afghanistan, part of their intensifying campaign to erase women from public life under their system of "gender apartheid." 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 President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's Tuesday, 31 December. Welcome to the PDB afternoon bulletin. And it would, of course, be the last PDB of 2024, might I add, because, as I think you probably already know, it's New Year's Eve. I'm Mike Baker. Your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed. First, state-backed Chinese hackers have executed another major breach of sensitive U.S. networks, this time stealing a trove of documents from the U.S. Treasury Department. Then we'll look at the latest crackdown by the Taliban on women in Afghanistan, part of their intensifying campaign to erase women from public life under their system of what is called gender apartheid. It seems like just yesterday when the Taliban were promising to protect women's rights. Of course, anyone who actually believed that the Taliban would protect women's rights could be accurately classified as a certified moron.

But first, our afternoon spotlight. We'll begin with a significant cyber breach of the U.S. Treasury Department by a state-sponsored Chinese hacking operation. That's just the latest, in a recent string of infiltrations linked to the Chinese Communist Party, the CCP. The hackers reportedly compromised the digital keys of a third-party software service provider to gain access to the Treasury Department's systems, which then allowed them to remotely tap into the desktop. computers of Treasury employees and steal a trove of unclassified documents. Well, there's that word again. Trove is now officially the PDB word of the day. Officials with the Treasury are staying tight-lipped regarding details about what documents were obtained, possibly because they don't know yet,

but described the hack as a, quote, major cybersecurity incident. Upon learning of the breach on December 8th, officials at the Treasury Department quickly notified the FBI. the U.S. cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency, and other members of the intelligence community, who began investigating the incident and working to determine the overall impact of the hack. In a letter to lawmakers, officials said all available evidence at this time suggests the cyber attack was orchestrated by, quote, a China state-sponsored, advanced persistent threat actor, end quote. China, of course, quickly denied the allegations, there's a shock, which they called

a baseless smear. But the incident comes as the U.S. continues to grapple with the fallout from another Chinese cyber espionage campaign known as Salt Typhoon, which compromised U.S. telecommunications companies earlier this year, and what officials have described is one of the worst hacks in American history. It's almost like the past complaints and harshly worded memos from the U.S. government haven't changed the CCP's behavior. That breach, which was first discovered in October, has still not been fully remediated, meaning that the hackers may still be active inside America's telecommunications systems. As a reminder, Salt Typhoon's sophisticated campaign targeted U.S. telecom giants, including Verizon, AT&T, and Lumen, creating backdoors into the

company's systems and exposing the data of millions to agents of the CCP. The hackers cast a large sweeping net, collecting not only metadata related to, call records, but also live phone calls related to specific targets, such as high-profile American political leaders. The significance of the threat, well, it's hard to overstate. As you may recall, in October, the hackers are believed to have breached the personal cell phones of President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance and successfully intercepted the audio of a conversation involving an unnamed advisor to Trump's campaign. On Friday, the White House provided a brief update on the situation,

revealing the number of telecommunications companies confirmed to be impacted by the hack had now risen to nine. Earlier this month, senior officials with the FBI urged Americans to start using encrypted messaging apps for their private communications in order to stay hidden from the CCP-backed hackers as the authorities continue to work to approach the group, from the networks. Coming up, the Taliban issues two new decrees, further curtailing the rights of Afghan women, expanding their campaign of what's called gender apartheid. I'll be right back.

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The Taliban is continuing its war against women in Afghanistan banning residential buildings from having windows that overlook spaces where women work, such as courtyards, kitchens, or wells. Yes, I can see what they're getting at. that could be the downfall of any society, being able to observe women drawing water from a well. The foreclosed decree from the Taliban Supreme Leader posted Saturday on X by a Taliban spokesman demands that existing windows be obstructed to prevent what it calls, quote, obscene acts. Municipal authorities are now charged with enforcing the decree, ensuring compliance with new construction and compelling homeowners to modify existing structures.

homeowners are urged to block these views themselves ostensibly to, quote, avoid nuisances caused to neighbors, end quote. This decree is just the latest in the campaign that the UN has unequivocally labeled, quote, gender apartheid, a systemic erasure of women from public life that has intensified since the Taliban's returned to power back in August of 2021. The ban on visible workspaces for women comes as part of a broader crackdown that has already stripped Afghan women of many fundamental rights. Girls are barred from pursuing education beyond primary school, women are denied access to public spaces like parks, and most forms of female employment have been outlawed. When the Taliban initially announced the suspension of post-primary education for girls, they framed it as a temporary measure to ensure a government.

quote, safe environment. In tandem with the latest decree, the Taliban's Ministry of Economy announced Sunday that all national and foreign non-governmental organizations or NGOs employing women will be shuttered, closed if they fail to comply with the regime's directives. This policy builds on a prior suspension of female NGO employees justified by the Taliban under claims of violations of Islamic dress codes. A senior UN official, warned that these measures are dismantling critical humanitarian efforts in a country where aid is a lifeline for millions. The UN also documented increasing obstruction of aid work for both male and female staff, exasperating an already dire humanitarian crisis.

Adding to the growing list of restrictions, a law enacted in August, as we reported here on the PDP, prohibits women from singing or reciting poetry in public and discourage. them from speaking loudly outside their homes. You really can't make this up. Local media, meanwhile, have ceased broadcasting female voices altogether, further muting their presence in Afghan society and continuing, of course, their march towards the Stone Age. While the Taliban insist that Islamic law guarantees the rights of men and women, their claims are increasingly hollow, of course, in the face of their actions. The regime has touted the issuance of nearly nine 9,000 work permits for women since its takeover, framing this as evidence of its commitment to

women's rights. Yet the narrative, of course, is starkly contradicted by the lived experiences of Afghan women whose freedoms have been systematically dismantled under Taliban rule. The Taliban maintains that these measures are designed to uphold social norms and public safety, denying that they obstruct aid agencies or interfere with operations. Yet, Afghan women now live behind increasingly restrictive measures, physical, social, and metaphorical. Their voices reduced to whispers now at best, and their presence erased from public life. And that, my friends, is the PDB afternoon bulletin for Tuesday, 31 December. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at pdb at thefirsttv.com. And don't forget, we'd love to hear from you. Send us your

New Year's resolutions also to PDB at thefirstTV.com. And as we wrap up 2024, I do want to thank you for taking a bit of time out of each of your days to tune in to the President's Daily Brief. You've consistently made the PDB one of the top news podcasts in all of podcast land. I wish you all a very happy, safe, and successful 2025. I'm Mike Baker. I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, Stay informed. Stay safe. Stay cool. Wireless can feel like a world of traps. But not with Visible. It's one-line wireless with unlimited data and hotspot. Powered by Verizon for $25 a month. Taxes and fees included.

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