Chris Murphy, CCNP, ITILv4f
Cybersecurity Analyst · CCNP Network Engineer · Incident Response Lead · Technical Project Manager
I’m a cybersecurity and network operations professional with more than a decade of experience supporting large-scale infrastructure, federal environments, enterprise monitoring, and high-visibility incident response.
My background spans cybersecurity analysis, network engineering, Windows system administration, technical project management, team leadership, and large infrastructure deployments. I’m CCNP-certified, comfortable working across both security and network operations, and especially strong in environments where technical judgment, communication, and operational ownership all matter at once.
Currently, I work as a Cyber Security Analyst supporting the CDC in a 24/7 hybrid NOSC/SOC environment. My day-to-day work sits at the intersection of network monitoring, security operations, incident coordination, alert triage, phishing analysis, escalation management, and operational communication. I help monitor and protect a global enterprise network where the alerts can range from failed logins, phishing submissions, lost laptops, suspicious USB activity, CVEs, firewall events, connectivity loss, travel-related endpoint concerns, DDoS activity, and major outages affecting campuses, datacenters, or critical infrastructure.
A big part of my value is judgment. I’m often the person deciding whether an alert is noise, a ticket, an escalation, or the beginning of a coordinated response. I perform preliminary investigation, document findings, create and manage tickets, coordinate conference bridges during major incidents, summarize developing situations, and keep the right people informed while technical teams work toward resolution.
I also bring real leadership experience. I’ve managed and led a technical team of 12, helping coordinate priorities, support day-to-day operations, improve communication, and keep work moving across people, process, and technology. I like leading from the middle: setting the tone, helping teammates succeed, translating ambiguity into action, and making sure both the technical details and the human side of operations are handled well.
Before moving deeper into cybersecurity operations, I built my career across network engineering, Windows administration, monitoring operations, technical project management, and large infrastructure deployments. At Trextel, I led a $20M dual-cellular deployment across thousands of sites and tens of thousands of devices, helping turn that delivery into a $30M client expansion. That experience shaped the way I still work today: understand the system, communicate clearly, own the outcome, and make the team around you better.
What I Do Well
I’m strongest in environments where technical depth, clear communication, leadership, and operational ownership all matter at the same time.
I bring hands-on experience with:
- Cybersecurity monitoring and alert triage
- Network engineering and enterprise network operations
- Major incident response and bridge coordination
- Root cause analysis and after-action documentation
- Technical project management and infrastructure deployment
- Team leadership, mentoring, and operational coordination
- Federal operations, compliance-minded workflows, and enterprise ticketing
- Cross-team communication during urgent or ambiguous events
- Automation, scripting, and practical tooling
- Cisco networking, monitoring platforms, endpoint/security tools, and on-prem or cloud operations
My daily toolkit has included Splunk, ServiceNow, CrowdStrike, O365 Defender, Trellix, Azure, AWS, SolarWinds, Archer, Meraki, Cisco platforms, Wireshark, PowerShell, AutoHotKey, and the CLI. I’m comfortable digging into logs, tracing network behavior, reviewing security events, writing operational documentation, briefing stakeholders, managing escalations, or helping leadership and teammates understand a complex issue with confidence and clarity.
Projects, Tools, and Curiosity
I like building things because building is how I learn.
This site includes small browser-based games and interactive tools I created or adapted to practice skills and share useful learning experiences with others. Some of them are intentionally simple, but they reflect how I like to approach learning: make it interactive, make it repeatable, and make it just engaging enough that practice becomes easier.
Some tools I've made, featured on this site:
- Tape Measure Fraction Practice: a game for practicing imperial fractions, conversions, ordering, and arithmetic. I originally built it while renovating yet another bathroom for my mom. Between measuring and cutting porcelain tile, plywood, and pipes, I realized I was rustier with fractional math than I used to be. As much as I love my metric tape measure, most of our tools and materials are in imperial. This project helps keep those fraction skills quick and sharp while also giving other people a way to practice.
- Morse Code Trainer: an interactive Morse practice tool with audio, timing, and live decoding feedback. I kept seeing a Morse code training card on TikTok and thought it looked like a fun idea, so I decided to build my own version instead. The result is completely free and includes several features the original card doesn't have. Along with standard Morse practice, I added a streak mode that challenges you to correctly enter specific letters, a WPM mode for speed training, and a variety of other enhancements designed to make learning Morse more engaging and customizable.
- Ouroboros: a multiplication game inspired by a math game I used to play in school as a kid. The original only existed on Windows 98 and was Wild West Math's "Buckin' Bronco" game. I set out to recreate the feeling of racing against the clock under pressure, but ended up changing quite a bit along the way. The circular game board, streak mechanics, scoring system, and overall presentation are my own additions, while the core idea of answering multiplication problems quickly before the pressure catches up comes from that childhood memory.
- Humble Choice Steam Redemption Automation: a supervised Playwright automation project that removes repetitive browser clicking while keeping the user in control. The project uses browser automation to navigate Humble Bundle's redemption workflow, identify unclaimed keys, and step through the redemption process while still requiring user oversight at key decision points. What started as a way to save myself from hundreds of repetitive clicks became another example of a mindset I apply almost everywhere: if I find myself doing the same task repeatedly, I start thinking about whether it can be automated, simplified, or made more reliable.
That approach carries over into my professional work as well. Whether I'm writing PowerShell scripts, building small utilities, creating browser automations, improving workflows, or finding ways to reduce operational friction, I enjoy using technology to eliminate repetitive work so people can spend more time solving problems that actually require human judgment. The technical challenge is often interesting, but what really motivates me is building systems that are efficient, repeatable, and less prone to human error.
The Humble automation project is a good example of how I think about technology and trust. It automates a boring task, but because it touches real user accounts, the article is written with transparency first: read the source, understand what it does, copy the files yourself if you prefer, but do not blindly trust code from a stranger on the internet.
That mindset comes directly from working in cybersecurity. Useful automation should reduce friction without hiding risk.
Outside of Work
I’m an electronics nerd, a tinkerer, and a hands-on builder.
I’ve built and modified 3D printers, including a recent scratch-built machine, and I currently have more printers than any reasonable person should probably admit to owning. I’ve been building, soldering, repairing, and flying FPV drones for about a decade. I enjoy working with Raspberry Pis, Arduinos, ESP32s, sensors, firmware, mechanical keyboards, embedded-style projects, and anything that lets software meet the physical world.
That curiosity is part of my professional identity too. I like learning new systems, understanding how things fail, and turning rough knowledge into something useful for a team.
How I Work
I care about being technically useful, but I care just as much about being easy to work with.
I like to lead by making complicated work clearer. That might mean organizing an incident bridge, summarizing a developing outage, helping a teammate triage an alert, managing competing priorities, documenting what happened after the fact, or building a small tool that makes a repetitive task easier next time.
I’m driven to keep improving, but I’m more focused on results than recognition. I want the work to be done well, the team to be stronger, and the people depending on us to feel like someone competent is paying attention.
If you want someone who can monitor the network, understand the security implications, coordinate the response, explain what happened, manage technical work across teams, build tools to make the next response better, and still get excited about soldering an ESP32 project after work, that’s where I fit best.
Whether it's cybersecurity, network engineering, incident response, automation, or building something from scratch, I’m always interested in solving meaningful problems and learning from smart people. Take a look at my resume, explore my projects and games, and get in touch if you'd like to work together.
