Other than thanking Eugenia, a.k.a. she who must be obeyed and without whom this book would still be a tree, there are a great many other people to whom I wish to express my gratitude.

The Automattic crew makes a fair start, as does the exceptional WordPress community and, beyond that, the wider open source fellowship, from the tech-headed coder to the pyjamaland blogger, those folks who, day by day, teach and inspire us to make much more than just money.

Then there are the unsung heroes of the Web, the white hats who police security, quell the fires, and build the fences that this book merely refers to. Without these guys and gals, we'd all be toast.

Ironically perhaps, I'd like to thank Microsoft too, but don't have a cardiac. Thing is, without all the blue screens, I'd never have had my defens-ucation. Like they say in Yorkshire, where there's muck, there's brass. So cheers Bill, and sorry if I knocked a couple of points off the share price.

Then there are the lads: Javier who's a bit of a git, but who tagged me with WordPress, Marc for prompting me to search-replace Windows for Tux, Piers for just being Piers. And my late dad and my mum, in case she's feigning interest and reading along, just because they're my parents.

Apparently there's been a rumor going around the vpsBible forums that I'd caught a killer virus, else had been run down by a system bus. I'd like to say that, hey, you're a top lot, IOU, and I promise to make it up to you. I've no plans to write another book for at least a couple of weeks.

I'd like to thank the decent, patient, and hard-working people at Packt Publishing for cueing me up on this project. In security spiel, you could say, they took a risk with an unknown threat tapping out his first book. I don't know everyone who's worked on this, but would like to thank the crew backstage as well as those folks I've personally dealt with—Sayama Waghu, Usha Iyer, Priya Mukherji, Vishal Bodwani, Susmita Panda, Dayan Hyames and, especially, Patricia Weir ('cos she's in charge of the cheques)—as well as the work's Technical Reviewers John Eckman, Kevin Kelly and Hari K T. Thank you, one and all. You cut me a break. You also nearly killed me. Thank you.

I had some great advice before signing up for grey hair; Leon Sterling and Steve White from the LinkedIn-based Certified Professional Writers Association and Rupert Heath from his namesake, London-based literary agency. You were right. Blood and guts! It had to be done. Thank you.

Finally, I'd like to thank whoever invented ground coffee, English tea, warm beer, and Scotch whiskey. Writing this last paragraph now, I kid ye not, it sure is time for a wee dram.