Joshua Tree Report: May 21st, 2017

This is the Joshua Tree Report for May 14th, 2017.

General Data

The temperature in Cody is 62° Fahrenheit and the weather is partly cloudy. The temperature in Kirkwall is 9° centigrade and the weather is partly cloudy. The temperature in Muscat is 41° centigrade and the weather is sunny. A barrel of crude oil is selling at $50.33, and $1.30 currently exchanges for £1. This week's geospatial image is the Saint Antony Coptic Orthodox Monastery outside Barstow, California.

In the News

Here are a few of this week's top stories.

Foreign Advisers Are Turning Kurdish Soldiers Into Professionals (War is Boring)

Very Quietly, Israel and Iraqi Kurdistan Build Ties (War is Boring)

Report: Arab states offer Israel improved ties in exchange for peace concessions (Jerusalem Post)

US-Saudi relations: A timeline (al Jazeera)

Kuwaitis Debate Power over Citizenship (Arab Gulf Studies Institute in Washington, D.C.)

Analysis: Iran steps up support for terrorism in Bahrain (Long War Journal)

There’s No Such Thing as the ‘Arab Street’ (Wall Street Journal)

Why China's Nervous Over South Korea's New Missile Defense System (Foxtrot Alpha)

China's Silk Road project: A trap or an opportunity? (al Jazeera)

Jordanian spies provided ISIL bomb intel: officials (al Jazeera)

What does the Haftar-Serraj meeting mean for Libya? (al Jazeera)

How Gorbachev Destroyed the USSR's Military Space Program, and What It Cost Russia (Sputnik)

Looks Like the Russians Tried to Lure U.S. Stealth Fighters Into an Intel Trap (War is Boring)

U.S. Air Force Sends Robotic F-16s Into Mock Combat (War is Boring)

Broken and Unreadable: Our Unbearable Aversion to Doctrine (Small Wars Journal)

Women: A NATO Special Operations Forces Force Multiplier (Small Wars Journal)

Today’s Massive Ransomware Attack Was Mostly Preventable—Here’s How To Avoid It (Gizmodo)

The Ransomware Meltdown Experts Warned About Is Here (Wired)

Global Ransomware Attack 'Accidentally' Halted But It's Probably Not Over [Updated] (Gizmodo)

How an Accidental "Kill Switch" Slowed Friday's Massive Ransomware Attack (Wired)

How I accidentally stopped a global Wanna Decryptor ransomware attack (Ars Technica)

If You Still Use Windows XP, Prepare For the Worst (Wired)

WCry is so mean Microsoft issues patch for 3 unsupported Windows versions (Ars Technica)

Microsoft Issues WanaCrypt Patch for Windows 8, XP (Krebs on Security)

Windows XP PCs infected by WCry can be decrypted without paying ransom (Ars Technica)

A WannaCry Flaw Could Help Some Windows XP Victims Get Files Back (Wired)

5 Tools To Protect Yourself From Ransomware (Wired)

High-Profile Extortion Hacks Aren't Paying Off (Wired)

Hackers Behind Massive Ransomware Attack Have Made an Embarrassingly Small Amount of Money (Gizmodo)

The WannaCry Ransomware Hackers Made Some Real Amateur Mistakes (Wired)

'Wana' Ransomware Outbreak Earned Perpetrators $26000 So Far (Krebs on Security)

Researchers eye possible N Korea link to cyberattacks (al Jazeera)

Virulent WCry ransomware worm may have North Korea’s fingerprints on it (Ars Technica)

The WannaCry Ransomware Has a Link to Suspected North Korean Hackers (Wired)

U.S. In Computer Attacks, Clues Point to Frequent Culprit: North Korea (New York Times)

Two days after WCry worm, Microsoft decries exploit stockpiling by governments (Ars Technica)

Fearing Shadow Brokers leak, NSA reported critical flaw to Microsoft (Ars Technica)

Why Governments Won't Let Go of Secret Software Bugs (Wired)

The Cyber Workforce Gap: A National Security Liability? (War on the Rocks)

The US Senate Is Using Signal (Schneier on Security)

What "Classified Information" Means, and What Happens If You Divulge It (Lifehacker)

Companies Are Creating So Much Data, It Has to Be Shipped in Trucks (Gizmodo)

Yacht Security (Schneier on Security)

Sheepdog rescued by coastguard after Shetland cliff fall (BBC News)

The Sinking of HMS ‘Victoria’ Led the Royal Navy Astray (War is Boring)

Top Podcasts

These were my favorite podcasts from the last week.

MWI Podcast Ep. 05 - "Zombies and Global Security" with Max Brooks (Modern Warfare Institute)

Radiolab: Nukes (Radiolab)

Inquiry: How did North Korea get the Bomb? (BBC World Service)

DocArchive: The Web Sheikh and the Muslim Mums (BBC World Service)

Has Moscow Already Taken Down the Trump Administration? (Council on Foreign Relations)

Area 45: Cyber Security (The Hoover Institution)

Episode 092 – The Trouble With Dating Michael Bazzell (Social Engineer)

Risky Business #454 -- Intel AMT latest, TavisO's horror-show Windows bug, Macron leaks and more! (Risky Business)

D3E1 - Security Engineering (CyberSecStudy)

D3E2 - Security Engineering (CyberSecStudy)

D3E3 - Security Engineering (CyberSecStudy)

D3E4 - Security Engineering (CyberSecStudy)

D3E5 - Security Engineering (CyberSecStudy)

Minds at War - Fighting France (BBC World Service)

'Over the top: a foul a blurry foul' - the first football charge of the First World War (The National Archives)

The Final Whistle: the Great War in 15 players - a London rugby club at war 1914-1918 (The National Archives)

The National Archives: Secrecy and government records (The National Archives)

Aberdeen Maritime Museum Podcast #2 Thermopylae (Aberdeen Maritime Museum)

Course Report

ENG 199: Suspended!
PAC 130: Suspended!
BA 480/CS 406: I listened to five CyberSecStudy podcasts, and I think I applied for about six jobs.
PI5502: I invested some time to figure out what potential items of interest are available at the Qatar Digital Library.
HST 406 (OGHAP): I re-read chapter six of The Gordon Highlanders: A Concise History by Trevor Royle.

Quote of the Week

"The other day I had a meeting at the provincial governor's office... All these notables came in and rubbed their beards against mine, a sign of endearment and respect. I simply could not get my message across in these meetings unless I made some accommodations with the local culture and values. Afghanistan is not like other countries. It's a throwback. You've got to compromise and go a little native."
- Major Kevin Holiday, USA, quoted by Robert Kaplan in Imperial Grunts