About the Authors

Gerard Johansen is an information security professional with over a decade of experience in areas such as penetration testing, vulnerability management, threat assessment modeling, and incident response. Beginning his information security career as a cybercrime investigator, Gerard has built on that experience while working as a consultant and security analyst for clients and organizations ranging from healthcare to finance. Gerard is a graduate of Norwich Univer sity with a Masters of Science in Information Assurance, and he is a certified information systems security professional.

Gerard is currently employed with an information security consulting firm in the United States focusing on penetration testing and threat assessments. He has also contributed to several online publications focused on various aspects of penetration testing.

I would like to thank Lisa, Caleb, and Jenna for their support during this project. Their support was instrumental. I would also like to thank Dr. Marie Wright, who opened my eyes to the challenging and rewarding nature of information security. To the staff at Packt Publishing, especially Sanjeet, your patience and support made this possible. Finally, to all those in the past, present, and future who have shown me new and inventive ways to help keep the keys to the kingdom safe, thank you.

Lee Allen is currently working as a security architect at a prominent university. Throughout the years, he has continued his attempts to remain up to date with the latest and greatest developments in the security industry and the security community. He has several industry certifications including the OSWP and has been working in the IT industry for over 15 years.

Lee Allen is the author of Advanced Penetration Testing for Highly-Secured Environments: The Ultimate Security Guide, Packt Publishing.

I would like to thank my wife, Kellie, and our children for allowing me to give the time I needed to work on this book. I would also like to thank my grandparents, Raymond and Ruth Johnson, and my wife's parents, George and Helen Slocum. I appreciate your encouragement and support throughout the years.

Tedi Heriyanto is currently working as an information security analyst at a financial institution. He has worked with several well-known institutions in Indonesia and overseas, for designing secure network architecture, deploying and managing enterprise-wide security systems, developing information security policies and procedures, performing various network, web and mobile application penetration testing, and also giving information security trainings. In his spare times, he perseveres to deepen his knowledge and skills in the field of information security. He shares his knowledge in information security field by writing information security books and has written several of them.

I would like to thank my family for supporting me during the book writing process. After this book has been published, I would have more free time for you all. A huge thanks to the Packt publishing team and their technical reviewers and editors, who provide comments, feedbacks, and support to make the book development project successful. Last but not least, I would like to give my big thanks to my co-authors, Lee Allen, Shakeel Ali and Gerard Johansen, whose technical knowledge, motivation, ideas, challenges, questions, and suggestions make this book writing process a wonderful journey.

Finally, I would like to thank you, the reader, who had bought this book; I hope you enjoy reading the book as much as I enjoyed writing it. I wish you good luck in your information security endeavor.

Shakeel Ali is a security and risk management consultant at a Fortune 500 company. He is also the key founder of Cipher Storm Ltd., UK. His expertise in the security industry markedly exceeds the standard number of security assessments, audits, compliance, governance, incident response, and forensic projects that he carries out in day-to-day operations. He has also supported the security and research initiatives at CSS Providers SAL. As a senior security evangelist, and having spent endless nights, he provides constant security support to various businesses, fi nancial institutions, educational organizations, and government entities globally. He is an active, independent researcher who writes various articles and white papers and manages Ethical-Hacker.net to provide insights into threat intelligence space. He also regularly participates in BugCon Security Conferences held in Mexico, to highlight the best-of-breed cyber security threats and their solutions from practically driven counter measures.

I would like to thank all my friends, reviewers, and colleagues who were wholeheartedly involved in this book project. Special thanks to the entire Packt publishing team and their technical editors and reviewers, who have given invaluable comments, suggestions, feedbacks, and support to make this project successful. I also want to thank my co-authors, Lee Allen, Tedi Heriyanto, and Gerard Johansen, whose continuous dedication, contributions, ideas, and technical discussions led to the production of such a useful book that you see today. Last but not the least, thanks to my pals from past and present with whom the sudden discovery never ends and their vigilant eyes that turn the IT industry into a secure and stable environment.