Acknowledgments
It takes a village to produce a book, and this one is no exception. We’d like to thank the many people who contributed, from concept to production and everything in between.
First and foremost, thanks to our editors Haze Humbert and James Manly, whose wealth of publishing experience and professional insights were invaluable. We especially appreciated your expert cat-herding skills, and how you patiently kept the process moving forward while giving us grace and time as we all navigated the uncharted waters of working together during the pandemic.
We are grateful to our colleagues Michael Ford and Ben Mayo, who took the time to review the book outline in the early phases to ensure we comprehensively addressed our audience’s needs. Michael also provided deep and substantive feedback throughout the entire book, for which we cannot thank him enough. We’d also like to thank Pearson’s excellent editing and production teams, including Julie Nahil, Menka Mehta, Aswini Kumar, and Jill Hobbs.
You can judge a book by its cover, and we feel so fortunate that artist Jonah Elgart lent his incredible skills to this work—researching actual pirate ship designs, sharing paintings and ideas, and even putting some “Easter eggs” into the illustration (see if you can find all three authors and the artist himself on the cover!). Thank you, Jonah, for gracing our written words with such a beautiful and thought-provoking work of art.
Cryptocurrency payment expert Marc Grens, co-founder of DigitalMint, kindly gave his time for an extensive interview and answered our many in-depth questions on the evolving cryptocurrency due-diligence and payment processes. His firsthand expertise in this area was invaluable, and we are grateful for the opportunity to bring this information to our readers.
Cyber insurance veterans Bob Wice and Frank Quinn took the time to give in-depth interviews that gave us a behind-the-scenes perspective on cyber insurance and risk management. Thank you for your trust and enabling us to share your wisdom with the readers of this book.
Ransomware and cyber extortion is a deep and quickly evolving topic. We’ve learned through experience by handling a variety of cases at LMG Security, with the support of our incredible team. Many thanks to all of our colleagues at LMG, particularly Derek Rowe, Madison Iler, and Dan Featherman. Thanks also to our longtime attorney (now judge) Shane Vannatta, for helping us to navigate the early days of ransomware and cyber extortion.
We are also grateful to our many colleagues who helped to shape our understanding of ransomware and cyber extortion over the years, including Scott Koller, Ryan Alter, Randy Gainer, David Sande, Marc Kronenberg, Bill Siegel, David Sherman, Katherine Keefe, Brett Anderson, Luke Green, Sue Yi, Mike Wright, Jody Westby, Sean Tassi, Peter Enko, Dave Chatfield, Mark Greisinger, Vinny Sakore, Andrew Lipton, Michael Phillips, Marc Schein, and Michael Kleinman.
On a personal level, each of us would like to share our gratitude individually as well.
From Sherri: Many thanks to my dear little ones, Violet and Thunder, whose love and enthusiasm buoyed me every day. My husband, Tom Pohl, and my amazing friends, Annabelle Winne and Jeff Wilson, were there for me every day: cheering me on, listening, and providing wise advice. I couldn’t have done this without you. I am grateful for my friends and family, especially my father, E. Martin Davidoff, my mother, Sheila Davidoff, my sister, Laura Davidoff Taylor, as well as Jessie Clark, Shannon O’Brien, Kaloni Taylor, Steve McArthur, Kevin Head, Samantha Boucher, Deviant Ollam, Kelley Sinclair, and so many others. Your constant support got me through the long journey of book writing once again. Above all, I feel so lucky to work with Karen Sprenger and Matt Durrin, my incredible co-authors! I have learned so much from you, both in the trenches while responding to extortion cases and during the process of crafting this book. No one could ask for a better team.
From Matt: I’d like to specifically thank my wife, Karah Durrin, and my daughter, Lauren Durrin, for being my quiet inspiration during the writing process. I could not have done this without your amazing and tireless support. I’d also like to thank all of the friends and family who helped me keep going throughout the journey. In addition to the people in my personal life, I’d like to extend a huge thank you to the LMG Security team for giving me the opportunity to make cybersecurity my career. It has been a wild ride, but I feel so blessed to be surrounded by such a wonderful and talented group of people. Finally, I’d like to thank my partners in crime (stopping), Sherri Davidoff and Karen Sprenger. I likely would have never discovered my passion for cybersecurity without both of you amazing women. Sherri believed in me enough to give me an opportunity to dive into the industry. Karen, in addition to being a fantastic security expert, was the person who first taught me how to properly capture a forensic hard drive image. I’m so grateful to have you both as friends and mentors. Thank you both and here’s to continuing our shenanigans together!
From Karen: In addition to those listed above, I’d like to thank my mom, Genie Thorberg, my biggest champion and the person who taught me how to use a computer; my dad, Bob Sprenger, who gave equal parts love and life lessons; and my sister, Rhonda Johnson, the first and best of many strong women who led the way for me. To my partners in shenanigans, Sherri Davidoff and Matt Durrin, thank you for the love, laughter, and commitment throughout this project. Although you have not yet succeeded in turning me into a night owl, you have made a daunting task achievable and, dare I say, enjoyable. I’ll look forward to swapping cybercrime news links for many years to come. I’ve had the great blessing of working for women-led companies at key points during my career. Thank you to Linda Wright and Desiree Caskey, who gave me my start many years ago—before I realized that women in technology were few and far between. And especially to Sherri, a particularly heartfelt thank you to you for taking a chance on me all those years ago and giving me a place to spread my wings in cybersecurity and business development. I’ve learned and grown so much working with you. Finally, thank you to my pack of poodles, Jasper and Gracie, who spent hours lying at my feet to keep me company throughout the whole process, and Sadie, who joined us near the end. I couldn’t have done it without the three of you.