An Airman Goes To Stanford

Kingpin: How one hacker took over a one billion  dollar  cybercrime underground  (Kevin Poulson). The  author analysis the efforts of Iceman and how he rose to become a powerful hacker leading to global nefarious activities. Eventually serving a 13-year jail sentence and will parole in Dec 2018. https://www.amazon.com/Kingpin-Hacker-Billion-Dollar-Cybercrime-Underground/dp/B00TJ3E2MQ/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1525196020&sr=1-2&keywords=kingpin Cyber Blockades  (Alison Lawlor Russel). The first book dedicated to the capability of cyber blockades. Ms. Russel defines blockade and exclusion zones as codified in law and applies them to the attacks on Estonia and Georgia. Truly excellent book! https://www.amazon.com/Cyber-Blockades-Alison-Lawlor-Russell/dp/1626161127/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1525196173&sr=1-1&keywords=cyber+blockades Agent in Place  (Mark Greaney) This fiction book follows the activi...

Events 1) Attended "Conflict Scenarios in the Cyber Age" workshop at the Center for International Security and Cooperation. The full day workshop brought global leaders to discuss topics like election hacking, cyber weapon proliferation and other topics. 2) Met with the Commandant of the United States Marine Corps discussing artificial intelligence and machine learning. 3) Attended AI Safety discussion with the chief engineer of Lyft's autonomous vehicle program. 4) Discussion with Citizen Lab Director, Ronald Deibert, centered around our ability to connect outstripping our ability to secure, democracy in retreat with authoritarianism on the rise in cyberspace and a booming surveillance industry that is unregulated with proven benefits. 5) Met with Dep SAF/CIO, Mr. Marion, and members of DIUx in order to discuss Enterprise IT as a Service. Work to do to align AF needs/priorities with DIUx bandwidth to support. 6) Toured Google, NVDIA and PIXAR. M...

The Good Lieutenant  (Whitney Terrell). Mr. Terrell embedded with ground units in Iraq and wrote a fictional book about life in a combat support company of an INF BN. His work centers around a Lt and how the officer led her unit and the changes she underwent during that time. We discussed the book with the author in my War and Fiction class at Stanford. His perspective of deployment experiences varied differently than the other veterans in the class. https://www.amazon.com/The- Good-Lieutenant/dp/B01GOYX5X4/ ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid= 1520533883&sr=8-1&keywords= the+good+lieutenant+by+ whitney+terrell The Square and the Tower  (Dr. Niall Ferguson). Dr. Ferguson's latest work analyzes the role of personal networks and how they were more powerful than hierarchical structures. For example, is the connectivity to Dr. Kissinger more powerful than political parties. Will facebook and social networking supplant current nation states? Interesting piece would be to look...

Events 1) Senior US mentor for Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. Over sixty students from MIIS, Berkeley and DLI formed teams around the 6 party talks over denuclearizing DPRK. 2) Attended discussion on "Is Demographic Change Inevitable" by Dr, David Leal.  --Analyzed shifts in demography and how it is affecting the national political process 3) Discussion on "Russian threats to the US Judicial System" by Suzanne Spaulding (CSIS) --Centered around parallels in election meddling and attacks on judicial processes 4) Met with USCG PACAREA Command (VADM Midgette) and his senior staff --3x Admirals, 15 CAPTs and CDRs --Topics were arctic, climate change and cybersecurity in the maritime domain, Pacific maritime security --I moderated the cybersecurity discussion b/w myself, Dr. Herb Lin and Dr. Jason Jaskolka --Meeting with PACAREA/C5I Director and her staff this month 5) Attended roundtable on "Human Rights ...

Events 1) Attended talk led by Dr. Herb Lin and Dr. Jackie Kerr on Cyber-enabled information warfare and the end of the enlightenment.  --Both speakers are fellows at CISAC discussed the concerns about living in a world that relies on information, but that information is easily modified from reality. 2) Meeting with Hacking 4 Defense leaders on the class next term --I will serve as a mentor for a team working on a DoD concern. Teams are cross-function. Department of Navy provides seed money for the Stanford version of H4D. -- http://hacking4defense. stanford.edu/ 3) Discussion with Dr. Joe Nye on "Will the Liberal International World Order survive?" --His concerns center around changes to international relations theory, economic trends, tech trends and globalization/deglobalization. 4) Gave a talk at the Stanford Applied Cybersecurity Working Group --My talk centered around the vulnerabilities of the Internet of Things and Applications --The Freem...

Zero Day  (Mark Russinovich). Fictions account of the perils of nefarious actors using a series of zero day exploits to meet their strategic gains.  https://www.amazon.com/ Zero-Day-Jeff-Aiken-Novel/dp/ 1250007305 Countdown to Zero Day  (Kim Zetter). Zetter analyzes how computer security specialists diagnosed the cyberspace attack referred to as "Stuxnet."  https://www.amazon. com/Countdown-Zero-Day- Stuxnet-Digital/dp/B00P89SN0C/ ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8& qid=1514524597&sr=1-1& keywords=countdown+to+zero+ day+by+kim+zetter Playing to the Edge  (Gen (ret) Mike Hayden). Gen (ret) Hayden provides his insight during his over thirty years of work in the IC. His insight during his time as DIRNSA and DCIA. My favorite read this month.  https://www.amazon.com/ Playing-Edge-American- Intelligence-Terror/dp/ B01AAYINBS/ref=sr_1_1?s=books& ie=UTF8&qid=1514524898&sr=1-1& keywords=michael+hayden Ghost in the Wires: My Adve...