Acknowledgements

This revision has been a long time coming, and we’ve made adjustments that you readers have asked for. My sincere thanks to all of you out there for continuing to fight the good fight while using this book as a guide!

This book is dedicated to my wife Christine, my children Garrett and Payton, and my extended family for supporting the effort to make this work the central tome for the industry. Still looking forward to that day where our biggest decision is the bench on which we will enjoy lunch!

We need to give a HUGE thanks to Derek Milroy for stepping up and providing great content around Windows, vulnerability management, and being the sole technical editor for this book. You will find his influence in every chapter of this edition. Without him, we never would have been able to release this book when we did.

And finally, to you, the reader. Whether you are in internal audit, a QSA, or simply someone responsible for some portion of PCI DSS, you live in the trenches implementing solutions every day. Keep at it, and don’t lose sight of the end game: to securely grow your business!

—Branden R. Williams

First and foremost, the most important part: I’d like to thank my wife Olga for being my eternal inspiration for all my writing, for providing invaluable economic advice, and for tolerating (well, almost always…) my work on the book during those evening hours that we could have spent together.

Next, I’d like to specially thank Derek Milroy for his exclusive material used in Chapter 9, “Vulnerability Management,” and also for reviewing the book contents.

Also, I’d like to personally thank the following people for their contributions to the book:

Walt Conway from 403 Labs for his insightful example used in Chapter 3, “Why Is PCI Here?”

John Kindervag from Forrester Research for inventing the concept of customer data security as part of corporate social responsibility (mentioned in Chapter 17, “Myths and Misconceptions of PCI DSS”).

—Dr. Anton A. Chuvakin