Fall Update - 2023 Edition

I have released some new and updated publications in the last week that I wanted to mention. I also wanted to quickly go over what I have planned for the remainder of 2023 and for the beginning of 2024, as some of my plans have changed slightly from the last time that I talked about it.

AD CS on Windows Server 2022

On October 25, 2023 I released a new guide, AD CS on Windows Server 2022, which is available for free. Just like the other publications that I offer, it is available for download on Gumroad. I mentioned a few months ago that I was probably going to charge for this guide, but I decided that I would rather offer it for free just like the previous version.

This guide is a successor to the Building a Certificate Authority in Windows Server 2019 guide that I released in the spring of 2022. It has been updated for Windows Server 2022, and is also based on the AD CS on Windows Server 2022 web guide that I released over the summer.

Building a Certificate Authority in Windows Server 2019

On November 1, 2023 I released an updated version of the Building a Certificate Authority in Windows Server 2019 guide. There are no major updates to the guide, it is just a small quality of life update to match the guide that was just released.

For more information on what has changed, there are release notes available.

Something minor that I wanted to mention, I was going to rename the guide to match the name of the AD CS on Windows Server 2022 guide. I was never happy with the original name that I chose, for some reason I was in a hurry and just picked that one. Since I have copyrights in place, I will just leave it alone. In the future I will try to avoid that issue by taking more time to name things properly.

Practical Guide to PKI with Windows Server

I am still working on my project to release the second edition of this book. The problem is that I haven’t had time to work on this lately due to other commitments, but I now have time to work on it exclusively for the next few weeks. I am using GitHub issues to keep track of what still needs to be completed, and there are over 60 issues that are outstanding. These vary from small issues like updating certain sections to add additional information, creating new graphics to better explain concepts, and to change the order of some steps to make the workflow of the book easier.

I did a test print of a hardcover version of the existing book to see what was involved, and to get a sense of what the finished product would look like. I did a test using two different publishing companies just to see what else was available for printing. Both test prints turned out fine, but the cover page was just slightly too dark, so I will need to make some adjustments. I am going to create a new cover page anyways, so I will factor that in when creating it.

Copyright Violation

I had something rather unusual happen a few weeks ago. A complete stranger emailed me regarding an issue they had found about my Practical Guide to PKI with Windows Server - First Edition book. I won’t go into the specifics, but someone had created an online training course for creating a PKI using AD CS, and they used my book as the primary source. The course was quite popular and there were many glowing reviews on how good the course content was.

The main problem here was that it was a blatant copyright violation of my work. The course used a considerable amount of content from my Practical Guide to PKI with Windows Server - First Edition book. A large portion of the course structure and content was copied directly from my book word for word, including images and diagrams.

This individual never got permission to use my book in this manner, and until this incident occurred, I had never heard of them or talked to them. I took immediate action upon finding out about it and the site hosting the training course removed it for me.

This is why it is important to copyright your work. Even though copyright is implied when you publish something, I have copyrighted all of my publications through the Canadian Intellectual Property Office.

Online Training Course

Apparently there is a demand for an online training course related to this subject matter, so I will create my own after I release the second edition of my book.