The President's Daily Brief - PDB Afternoon Bulletin | December 4th, 2024: China's Deep Cyber Infiltration Of US Networks & Cuba In Disarray

Episode Date: December 5, 2024

In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin:   First, U.S. intelligence officials are urging Americans to protect their private communications behind encrypted apps as they continue to grapple with the fallout from an unprecedented cyber-attack by Chinese operatives. Then, we’ll turn to Cuba, where the country’s national power grid has once again collapsed after their largest power plant failed, leaving millions in the dark. It comes as the country faces fuel shortages and an ongoing economic crisis. 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 Patriot Gold: Call 1-888-870-5457 for a free investor guide. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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First, U.S. intelligence officials are urging Americans to protect their private communications behind encrypted apps as they continue to grapple with the fallout from an unprecedented cyber attack by Chinese operatives. Then, we'll turn to Cuba, where the country's national power grid has once again collapsed after their largest power plant failed, leaving millions in the It comes as the country faces fuel shortages and an ongoing economic crisis. But first, our afternoon spotlight. We'll begin with an update on a major breach of U.S. telecommunications companies by Chinese operatives that officials have described as one of their worst hacks in American history.

During a briefing with reporters on Tuesday, senior officials with the FBI and the cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency urged Americans to start using encrypted messaging apps for their private communications to stay hidden from the Chinese Communist Party's backed hackers. They warned that the breach, which was first discovered in October of this year, has not been fully remediated and that they are unsure when America's telecommunication systems will be clear of the threat, and that's according to an exclusive report from NBC News. As a reminder, the warning is tied to the hacking group known as Salt Typhoon. I don't know who comes up with these names, which launched a sophisticated campaign targeting U.S. telecom giants, Verizon,

AT&T, and Lumen earlier this year. Intelligence officials discovered that the hackers had created backdoors into the company's systems exposing the data of millions to agents of the CCP, the Chinese Communist Party. The hackers cast a 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. During Tuesday's briefing, one official said, quote, what we have told folks internally is not new here.

Encryption is your friend, whether it's on text messaging or if you have the capacity to use encrypted voice communication, even if the adversary is able to intercept the data if it's encrypted, well, it will make it impossible. They added that Salt Typhoon hackers are still active inside U.S. telecommunications systems, and the compromise is so large, scale that it's, quote, impossible to predict a time frame on when we'll have full eviction, end quote. The significance of the threat is, well, frankly hard to overstate. As you may recall,

in October, the hackers are believed to have breached the personal cell phones of Donald Trump and J.D. Vance and successfully intercepted the audio of a conversation involving an unnamed advisor to Trump's campaign. While the infiltration was first disclosed in the run-up to the presidential election, officials said Tuesday they don't believe it was intended to sway the results. Rather, they see it as part of a larger espionage operation by the Chinese regime to glean intelligence on American politics and senior government officials. Well, they wouldn't be wrong there. No surprises here, but Chinese officials have previously denied any involvement. We have no idea. They've previously denied any involved in the campaign, calling it, oh, Western disinformation.

Well, if anybody knows disinformation, I suppose it would be the Chinese regime. Officials from the U.S. intelligence community, alongside leaders at the Federal Communications Commission, the FCC, are holding a classified briefing for all senators on Wednesday regarding Salt Typhoon, and a U.S. Senate Commerce Subcommittee is planning a hearing on the outgoing threat on December 11th. Now, many lawmakers across both parties have demanded a proportionate response against the CCP, and for measures to be taken to bolster telecommunication security and hold U.S. corporations accountable for these cyber intrusions. Brendan Carr, who's been tapped by Trump to lead the FCC come January, said Wednesday,

quote, the salt typhoon intrusion is a serious and unacceptable risk to our national security. We will work with national security agencies through the transition and next year in an effort to root out the threat and secure our networks. quote. Coming up, we'll turn to Cuba, where the country's national power grid has once again collapsed as the country grapples with fuel shortages and an ongoing economic crisis. I'll be right back. Kayak gets my flight, hotel, and rental car right, so I can tune out travel advice that's just plain wrong. Bro, Skycoin, way better than points. Never fly during a Scorpio full moon. Just tell the manager you'll sue. Room upgrade. Stop taking bad travel advice. Start comparing hundreds of sites with kayak and get your

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A failure at the island's largest power plant caused the national electrical grid to collapse, leaving millions without power. Now, the early morning blackout is the latest chapter in an ongoing energy crisis gripping the communist island, which is already struggling with fuel shortages and deepening political instability, of course just 90 miles off the U.S. coast. The power plant, located in Western Cuba, has become a stark symbol of the country's deteriorating infrastructure. This is the same facility that failed back in October, as we reported previously on the PDB,

when dwindling fuel supplies and Hurricane Oscar caused days-long outages. Just weeks later, another hurricane dealt similar damage, underscoring the fragile state of Cuba's energy grid. The latest outage left the capital city, Havana, cloaked in near total blackout. According to Reuters, a witness noted that before dawn, only a few large hotels and government buildings dotted the skyline with lights. Social media reports suggest that the blackout may have affected the entire island of some 10 million people, though Cuban officials have yet to confirm this full scale of the outage, which which I guess isn't exactly surprising for a regime that isn't known for transparency.

For context, Cuba's aging oil-fired plants have struggled for years to meet growing energy demands plagued by outdated infrastructure and frequent mechanical failures. Compounding the crisis, oil imports from key allies like Venezuela, Russia, and Mexico have sharply declined, leaving the island increasingly unable to fuel its power plants. Now, much like all those classic cars cruising through Havana, streets, these power plants are relics of a bygone era, only, I guess, with less charm and reliability. These repeated blackouts aren't the only issue that Cuba is facing right now. The communist-run government is also experiencing its worst economic downturn since the Soviet

Union's collapse. Since 2020, 10% of Cuba's population has fled the island, 10% seeking refuge from economic and political despair. The Energy and Minds Ministry is scrambling, to restore power, but these recurring failures highlight the deeper instability that's plaguing Cuba. With no quick fixes in sight, the communist regime faces growing turmoil and an increasingly dissolution population. And that, my friends, is the PDB afternoon bulletin, or as we previously called it, the early evening bulletin for Wednesday for December. If you have any questions, please reach out to me at PDB at thefirsttv.com, and as you may have heard by now, to live Listen to the show ad-free, should you be hankering for an ad-free experience.

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