Phillip Stephens

I'm Phillip Stephens, a software engineer with the Empirical Security Research Group at Stanford University under Zakir Durumeric. I'm interested in the intersection of networks, security, and privacy.

I develop and maintain open-source internet scanning tools including a high-speed L4 port scanner, ZMap, a performant DNS scanner, ZDNS , and an application-level protocol scanner for protocols like TLS, SSH, FTP, and HTTP in ZGrab2.

As the only full-time developer on these projects, it's been a great experience improving these tools for both users and contributors, as well as interacting with the community of academic, industry, and non-profit research groups utilizing them. Finally, it's been an incredibly fulfilling experience mentoring several undergraduate and graduate students in their research looking at UDP service discovery, DNS vulnerability scanning, and DNSSEC adoption.

Prior to joining ESRG, I graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology with my BS/MS in Computer Science with a focus on Networking before moving to the Bay Area to work as a Software Engineer at a security startup.

Outside of work, I love getting outside for a nice hike, trying new recipes, checking out a cozy local coffee shop, or grabbing drinks with friends. Please reach out with the linked socials, always up for a coffee and chat!