I've spent the better part of my career doing the unglamorous but deeply satisfying work of keeping systems secure — hardening infrastructure, hunting down vulnerabilities, and building networks that hold up under pressure. OpenBSD found me early on, and honestly, it never let go.

What drew me in wasn't just the security track record — it was the philosophy. The OpenBSD project doesn't cut corners, and over the years, that mindset shaped the way I approach every system I touch. I've run pf rulesets in production environments, leaned on OpenSSH in ways most people never think to, and lost more than a few weekends going deep on the base system just because I wanted to understand it.

I'm not an academic. I'm an architect who works in the real world, where things break, deadlines exist, and "secure by default" isn't just a tagline — it's a requirement. This book is the one I wished existed when I was starting out, and the one I still reach for now.

When I'm not buried in a terminal, I contribute to the security community through research, talks, books and the occasional late-night mailing list thread. I believe open systems make us all safer, and I hope this handbook helps you feel the same way.