Press/Media - Author's Bio (non technical)

Technical bio follows.

Appleman is the president of Desaware Inc., a developer of add-on products and components for Microsoft Visual Studio. He is a co-founder of APress, a publishing company specializing in high quality professional level books for computer
programmers and Information Technology professionals. He is the author of numerous books including “Moving to VB.Net: Strategies, Concepts and Code”, “How Computer Programming Works”, “Dan Appleman’s Visual Basic Programmer’s Guide to the Win32 API”, and “Always Use Protection: A Teens Guide to Safe Computing”. He is the author of a series of e-books on various technology and security topics. He is also a consultant, public speaker, and columnist. Dan is a graduate of the University of California with degrees in Information and Computer Science, and Electronic Engineering.

In the 80’s, Dan was a teacher, and a group of teens drafted him to become an advisor for their youth group. The group, which focuses on building leadership skills, turned out to be one of the most impactful experiences of his life. Now almost 14 years later, Dan is still an advisor to the youth group and volunteers for many of their activities ranging from athletic, to cultural, to social, to religious, to outdoors, to community service. Since the students know that he’s in the computer business, it’s not uncommon for them to come to him with numerous questions about their computers. This book emanated from these conversations and the realization that
teens are the most often hit by viruses, trojans, and worms because of the type of applications that they use on their computers. They are also the ones who came up with the title for the book. 

Technical Bio

As one of the earliest software developers for Windows (I wrote programs for Windows 1.0), I've seen Windows security evolve from the ground up. For example: I can tell you why a technology called "ActiveX controls" represent a security risk, because I've written those controls, and know how hard it really is to make them
truly secure. I am capable of modifying an executable file, inserting additional code, and still have it work.

I can install a component called a DLL on a system that can replace Microsoft's and spy on the behavior of any application. I know how to write a program that can watch every keystroke you type on your system. I've written programs that can watch what you're doing with other programs, and extract information from them
without your knowledge. I know how hard it is to truly delete files from a hard drive because I've written disk drivers and have used tools to retrieve information from crashed or "erased" drives. In fact, of all the code I write - that's the kind I enjoy
most: the low level code where you're really getting inside a system or application to see how it works. 

But I've never written a virus or malicious code. There's way too much fun to be had writing good and useful code for me to ever waste time with viruses. Every one of those techniques I've described has positive uses - they can help make systems more secure, and make applications work better. 

Most of my writing until this book has been for software developers. Along with general programming topics, I've written at length on security topics including cryptography, password protection, licensing, reverse engineering, and security
programming. 

Like any software developer, I'm also a computer user. As such I've secured and patched systems. I've examined systems after attacks to repair the damage
and track down how it was accomplished. I've set up and configured firewalls and routers. I've performed privacy audits. I've suffered failed updates and hard
drive crashes. I've made stupid mistakes, and have come up with brilliant solutions.
So for those of you who are wondering, "who is this guy, and does he really know anything about computer security?": Rest assured - I know this stuff - and
most of it was learned not through books and classes, but the hard way: through real life experience.