Why a War Studies PhD?

When I begin receiving multiple questions on a topic, it's a signal that I should write a blog post. Several of you have asked me about my experience as a PhD candidate in the King's College London Department of War Studies. In this post I will try to answer your questions by explaining how I got...

2014-2015 Professional Reading Round-Up

At an earlier point in my career, I used to read a lot of technical security books. From 2006 to 2012 I published a series of Best Book Bejtlich Read posts. Beginning in 2013 I became much more interested in military-derived strategy and history, dating back to my studies at the Air Force Academy...

Not So Fast! Boyd OODA Looping Is More Than Speed

The name "John Boyd" and the term "OODA Loop" are probably familiar to many of the readers of this blog. I've mentioned one or the other in 2006, 2007, 2009 twice, and 2014. Boyd was a fighter pilot in the Korean war and revolutionized thinking on topics like fighter design and military strategy...

For the PLA, Cyber War is the Battle of Triangle Hill

In June 2011 I wrote a blog post with the ever polite title China's View Is More Important Than Yours. I was frustrated with the Western-centric, inward-focused view of many commentators, which put themselves at the center of debates over digital conflict, neglecting the possibility that other...

Mandiant Global Median Dwell Time Deteriorates from 11 to 14 Days

Oh snap. My single most important cybersecurity metric deteriorated again. In the M-Trends report for calendar year 2024, Mandiant’s global median dwell time metric worsened from 10 to 11 days. In the newest report, released today, for calendar year 2025, that metric worsened again, from 11 to 14...

Stop Shoddy Academic "Research"

When someone cites one of my works, I get a notice from Research Gate. Today I got one, from an article from the "IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society." It cited my first book, which is 21 years old. The PDF was available. I noticed the article referenced Prelude, a project I talked...

Five Reasons I Want China Running Its Own Software

Periodically I read about efforts by China, or Russia, or North Korea, or other countries to replace American software with indigenous or semi-indigenous alternatives. I then reply via Twitter that I love the idea, with a short reason why. This post will list the top five reasons why I want China...

A Brief History of the Internet in Northern Virginia

Earlier today I happened to see a short piece from the Bloomberg Businessweek "The Year Ahead: 2016" issue, titled The Best Places to Build Data Centers. The text said the following: Cloud leaders including Amazon.com, Microsoft, Google, IBM, and upstart DigitalOcean are spending tens of billions...

A Different Spin on the Air War Against IS

Sunday evening 60 Minutes aired a segment titled Inside the Air War. The correspondent was David Martin, whose biography includes the fact that he served as a naval officer during the Vietnam War. The piece concluded with the following exchange and commentary: On the day we watched the B-1 strike...