Irfan is a technology risk and cyber leader, having led teams in research, the private sector, and government to understand, manage, and mitigate technology and cyber risk. Having started his career at Deloitte, Irfan was most recently the senior civil servant responsible for UK cybersecurity and resilience policy, ensuring that governance of cyber and technology risks became a boardroom priority for critical national infrastructure, software, and technology providers and companies across the UK. He was responsible for leading UK resilience policy under the 2022 National Cyber Strategy and developing the UK’s approach in the soon-to-be published National Cyber Action Plan, setting up the world's first national product security law (the PSTI Act 2022), and the UK’s critical infrastructure security laws (NIS regulations and Cyber Security & Resilience Bill).
He has also led on developing UK and global best practice through developing technology standards for critical and emerging technologies (EN 303 645, EN 304 223, Software Security & App Codes of Practice), the Cyber Governance code of practice, and the UK’s Cyber Resilience Pledge. Irfan was responsible for ministers on national emergencies at COBR, representing the UK at the G7, OECD, the UN, and other international fora.
Irfan is a Chartered Accountant (FCA), a certified coach (ILM Level 5), has a Level 2 Certificate in Wine (WSET), and has a master’s from Harvard University. Irfan was the author of the 2020 and 2022 National Cyber Power Index, which was the first research to measure cyber power.
