Acknowledgments

Andrew Whitaker:

Many people were involved in the creation of this book. First, I must thank my forever supportive wife, whose encouragement kept me focused and motivated to complete this project. You haven't seen much of me this past year, and I thank you for your sacrifice so that I could pursue this book. I will always love you.

To Dan Newman, my coauthor: I can only say thank you for being a great friend and colleague. Despite the long distance between us, you still remain a good friend, and I look forward to working with you on future projects. The dawn is coming!

Two people who deserve special mention are Brett Bartow and Chris Cleveland. You both have saint-like patience to allow for our habitual tardiness.

Acknowledgements must also be given to our two technical editors, Steve Kalman and Michael Overstreet. Steve, without you, this book never would have happened. We are lucky to have you as an editor. Michael, thank you for holding such a high standard to ensure that this book is of quality material.

Several others must be mentioned for their assistance with certain chapters. Jonathan Irvin and Robert Hall at Defcon-5 both shared their social engineering tactics for Chapter 4. For our chapter on buffer overflows, I am very grateful for SolarIce at #CovertSystems, who chatted online with me at 4:00 a.m. one Saturday morning to discuss his exploit techniques. Susan Brenner at the University of Dayton helped with the discussion on cybercrime and ethics in Chapter 2. Susan, your students are lucky to have you.

Still others had an indirect involvement with this book. I'd like to thank John Almeter at NetTek, a man of great integrity who got me started in this field. I also must thank Rick Van Luvender at InfoSec Academy for teaching me so much about penetration testing. Thanks also to the Indian River Starbucks for providing me with a second office.

Finally, I must thank God, for without you, there would be no ethics or morality.

Daniel Newman:

I would like to thank Brett Bartow and Christopher Cleveland for their encouragement, drive, and push to help us keep this massive project on schedule and on time. Thanks, guys!

To our technical editors, Michael Overstreet and Steve Kalman, for double-checking all our facts and helping us fix all our minor typos.

To Andrew, with whom I coauthored this book. Thank you for your never-ending patience with busy work schedules, time zones, and deadlines that plagued us. If only there were 25 hours in the day, we could accomplish so much more. You are the best of friends, and I would like to thank you for the opportunity to work with you on this project I can't wait to do 167.

I would also like to thank Hannah "Wee" for putting up with Mom and I while we string the den with cables and hammer away on computer keyboards attacking systems for hours on end. You always seem to find a way to still be involved, whether it be getting coffee or just staying close by watching movies on the laptop. Thanks, Wee!

Lastly and most importantly, I would like to thank my wife, Clare. Thank you, honey, for your never-ending patience, technical editing, case study testing, reference checking, and moral support on this book. You are my best friend, my peer, my partner, and my soul mate for life. For without you, this book never would have been possible. I love you, my wonderful partner.