Acknowledgments

Eric Conrad: I need to first thank my wife, Melissa, and my children, Eric and Emma, for their love and patience while I wrote this book. Thank you to the contributing authors and my friends Joshua Feldman and Seth Misenar.

Thank you to my teachers and mentors: Thank you, Miss Gilmore, for sending me on my way. Thank you, Dave Curado and Beef Mazzola, for showing me the right way to do it. Thank you, Stephen Northcutt, Alan Paller, Deb Jorgensen, Scott Weil, Eric Cole, Ed Skoudis, Johannes Ullrich, Mike Poor, Ted Demopoulos, Jason Fossen, Kevin Johnson, John Strand, Jonathan Ham, and many others from the SANS Institute, for showing me how to take it to the next level.

I would like to thank the supergroup of information security professionals who answered my last-minute call and collectively wrote the 500 questions comprising the two sets of online practice exams: Rodney Caudle, David Crafts, Bruce Diamond, Jason Fowler, Philip Keibler, Warren Mack, Eric Mattingly, Ron Reidy, Mike Saurbaugh, and Gary Whitsett.

Seth Misenar: I would like to thank my wife, Rachel, the love of my life, who showed continued patience, support, and strength while entertaining two young children throughout this writing process. I am grateful to my children, Jude, Hazel, and Shepherd who were amazingly gracious when Daddy had to write. And I count myself lucky to have such wonderful parents, Bob and Jeanine, who, as always, provided much of their time to ensure that my family was taken care of during this writing period.