Acknowledgments

This book would not be possible without the gracious help of the following individuals, who are listed in no particular order.

Content

Derek Melber wrote the Active Directory chapter of this book. Without that content, there would have been a huge hole in coverage of Active Directory. Well done, Derek.

Technical input

No single person could possibly know everything about Windows security. I was happy to receive technical input from all of these people, without whom the book would have been a series of errors and overstatements:

Darren Canavor, Drew Cooper, Michael Cretzman, David Cross, William Dixon, Eric Fitzgerald, Trevor Freeman, Robert Gu, Cliff Hall, Vic Heller, Pat Hoffer, Don Jones, Connie LaChasse, Derek Melber, James McIllece, Jeremy Moskowitz, Radia Perlman, Xiaohong Su, Laudon Williams, and Helle Vu and her Microsoft PKI Test Team (whom I paid in beer and toys for their services).

Writing input

Knowing how to say something is often more important than saying it. I received great advice on this front from Vince "Kahuna" Abella, Jen Bayer, John Coates, Jason Garms, Ken Klavonic, Jason Rush, Michiko Short, Dionysia Sofos, and Jim Wickham. We worked (and argued) through many ideas together and were able to turn them into useful information in this book.

Technical editing

I feel lucky in that I had great technical editing feedback from Rick Kingslan, Joe Richards, Paul Robichaux, Mitch Tulloch, and Bob Williams. My thanks to them for catching all the errors and omissions before the readers did.

Editing

Robbie Allen did a phenomenal job of putting up with my crap and still getting the book out. He made me look good by fixing so many errors. Most importantly, Robbie ran interference when he knew I couldn't deal with situations. For that, I'll be eternally grateful. I could never have shipped this book without him.

Norma Emory did a very thorough copyedit, and Brian MacDonald supplied a valuable developmental edit at just the right time that helped streamline the content, especially in the PKI chapter. Rob Romano of O'Reilly did a bang-up job of the book's art. John Osborn of O'Reilly was a great support when Robbie and I needed help but spared the rod more often than not.

Special thanks

Special thanks go to Jeremy Eisenman of nCipher for the use of an HSM, Brian Valentine for the WIM, and my students for helping me think in new ways during every class.

Deepest thanks go to my wife Heide, who supported me all through the process of this book's creation. This book took precedence over so many other things, and she always understood and made it OK. She also made sure I got the work done!