# Brian Stephens — Principal Cyber Security Consultant

## Identity & Role
- **Name:** Brian Stephens
- **Title:** Principal Cyber Security Consultant
- **Clearance:** SC Cleared
- **Experience:** 25+ years in cybersecurity
- **Location:** United Kingdom
- **Website:** https://brianstephens.co.uk
- **LinkedIn:** https://www.linkedin.com/in/b-stephens/
- **Contact:** https://brianstephens.co.uk/#get-in-touch

## Consulting Philosophy
Independent cybersecurity consultancy grounded in technical depth. Brian Stephens helps regulated organisations build defensible, auditable security postures — from board-level strategy to hands-on technical implementation. He operates across both governance and implementation layers, ensuring strategic advice is grounded in what is technically achievable and that technical delivery is aligned to genuine business risk.

Three core principles:
1. **Outcomes over outputs** — Security programmes must deliver quantifiable ROI and hold under real scrutiny, not just satisfy auditors on paper.
2. **Technical depth enables strategic advice** — Most valuable when operating at both board level and implementation depth simultaneously.
3. **Defensibility is the standard** — Every risk register, architecture decision, and governance artefact must be demonstrably defensible to regulators, auditors, insurers, and boards.

## Service Areas
- **Cloud Security Architecture** — Independent assurance of Azure and M365 environments. Secure-by-design architecture, zero-trust implementation, identity governance, Defender suite optimisation, AI security controls (Copilot), and cloud native guardrails.
- **GRC (Governance, Risk & Compliance)** — Building governance frameworks that produce defensible, auditable security postures. Risk registers, policy architecture, control validation, third-party SRA.
- **Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) Assurance** — Security assurance for nuclear, electricity, and oil & gas environments. Protecting national interests and critical systems against emerging threats. IT/OT convergence, regulatory accountability, and safety-critical proportional mitigations.
- **Audit & Control Validation** — Evidence that satisfies internal audit, regulatory assessment, and certification bodies (ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials+, CAF, ONR SyAPS, CIS controls).
- **Threat Detection & Response** — KQL-driven detection engineering across Microsoft Sentinel and Defender. Translating telemetry into actionable intelligence.
- **Board-Level Security Advisory** — Translating complex security risk into strategic roadmaps aligned to business risk appetite.

## Provable Outcomes & ROI
Brian Stephens delivers engagements designed for quantifiable business impact, bridging the gap between technical risk and financial governance:
- **AI-Augmented SOC (Security Copilot):** Architected workflows reducing MTTR by 30% and accelerating triage by 40%, pacing toward 99%-348% ROI.
- **Risk Mitigation & Health Checks:** Proactive vulnerability identification delivering an estimated 10:1 ROI by mitigating the £195k average UK breach cost.
- **Assurance & Insurance Baseline (CE+):** Delivered zero-disruption CNI certification, mitigating commodity attack exposure by up to 99% and significantly lowering cyber insurance claim likelihood by 92%.

## Sector Experience
- Nuclear energy (Sizewell C, ONR regulated)
- Electricity CNI (Northern Powergrid)
- Oil & Gas (Ineos)
- Financial services
- Central government & Home Office aligned standards
- Healthcare
- Technology and SaaS

## Platform & Technical Depth

### Architecture & DevSecOps
Secure-by-design delivery, threat modelling (STRIDE), DevSecOps integration, cloud native guardrails, IaC scanning, secure by default engineering, hybrid and cloud platforms security.

### Cloud & Identity
Azure Security Center, Microsoft Sentinel, Defender for Cloud, Defender for Endpoint, Entra ID / PIM, Conditional Access, Microsoft Purview, DLP & Intune MDM, M365 Copilot security, NCSC Cloud Principles.

### GRC & Frameworks
ISO 27001, ISO 27005, NIST CSF, CAF (NCSC), ONR SyAPS, CIS controls, Cyber Essentials Plus, NIS2 / UK CSR Bill, Third-party SRA, SABSA principles, Risk register design.

### Detection & Response
KQL (advanced), Microsoft Sentinel, Tenable One, Carbon Black EDR, Splunk SIEM, Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, IR plan design, Threat hunting.

### CNI & OT Security
IT/OT convergence, Purdue model, OT risk assessment, ONR regulatory assurance, ICS/SCADA governance, Nuclear (Sizewell C), Oil & Gas CNI, SC Cleared delivery.

### Network & Infrastructure
Zero-trust architecture, network segmentation, container & API security, encryption standards, Cisco firewall estate, VPN design & migration, IDS/IPS architecture, Hybrid estate security, Active Directory hardening, CIS benchmark hardening.

## Credentials & Clearance
- SC Security Clearance (active)
- ISO 27001 implementation experience
- Cyber Essentials Plus assessor/implementor
- NIST CSF / CAF framework specialist
- ONR SyAPS (nuclear security)
- NIS2 / UK CSR Bill compliance

## Engagement Model
Brian Stephens is an independent consultant, not a staffing agency. He is not the right fit for every project and will say so upfront. Best suited to:
- Regulated organisations with complex GRC programmes
- CNI operators requiring senior independent assurance
- Boards and leadership teams needing credible security advisory
- Cloud environments requiring defensible security architecture (Azure / M365)

## Case Studies & Resources
- **Case Studies Directory:** https://brianstephens.co.uk/case-studies
  - **Security Copilot AI Integration:** https://brianstephens.co.uk/case-studies/security-copilot-diagram
  - **Sizewell C Cyber Essentials Plus:** https://brianstephens.co.uk/case-studies/cyber-essentials
  - **Independent IT Health Check:** https://brianstephens.co.uk/case-studies/it-health-check
- **AI Assistant:** https://brianstephens.co.uk/faq
- **Privacy Policy:** https://brianstephens.co.uk/privacy

## Extended Content
- **Full site content (plain text for LLM crawlers):** https://brianstephens.co.uk/llms-full.txt