To all of our readers, supporters, and volunteers I'd like to thank everybody for your help and support over the past seven years while I've been the Director of the SANS Internet Storm Center.  I became the Director in September 2003, right after the infamous Blaster worm had train-wrecked many networks and made life difficult for thousands of system administrators and users.  I had no idea how successful the SANS ISC was going to become, but it has matured way beyond what I thought we could do back then.  

Like many of our volunteer handlers who have moved along due to career changes and life events, I've reached the point where I need to step down from the role of Director and turn the leadership over to a face many of you are familiar with - Johannes Ullrich.  Johannes has been our CTO since the beginning and is the perfect person to lead the organization to new levels of success.  I'll still be part of the community, but due to increasing work requirements and this pesky PhD I've been working on for the past few years I won't be able to keep devoting the proper amount of time needed to run this great group.

If you are at the SANS Cyber Defense Initiative (CDI) event in Washington, DC please join us at 6:30 pm tonight for the official hand-over and to meet several of our volunteer handlers.

I look forward to continuing my support to SANS and the community, and I offer my best wishes for success to Johannes and the handler team.

Marcus H. Sachs
Director, SANS Internet Storm Center