Brian Kelley

Brian Kelley is an author, columnist, and Microsoft SQL Server MVP focusing primarily on SQL Server security. He is a contributing author for How to Cheat at Securing SQL Server 2005 (Syngress), Professional SQL Server 2008 Administration (Wrox), and Introduction to SQL Server (Texas Publishing). Brian currently serves as an infrastructure and security architect. He has also served as a senior Microsoft SQL Server DBA, database architect, developer, and incident response team lead.

Interests: Chess, Reading, Soccer (Football), Baseball, Animals, Theology

All authors

Security Basics: The Principle of Least Privilege

by Brian Kelley

Databases – Infrastructure – Security

Whenever I’m asked about creating a security model for an application or database, I tell folks to follow the Principle...

2017-07-17 (first published: 2017-06-30)

2,944 reads

The Three A’s: Auditing

by Brian Kelley

Databases – Infrastructure – Security

Authentication and Authorization, the first two of the three A’s of security, control who gets access to what. However, at...

2017-07-13 (first published: 2017-06-28)

1,621 reads

The Three A’s: Authorization

by Brian Kelley

Databases – Infrastructure – Security

Having covered authentication yesterday, let’s move on the second A, authorization. Authentication was about proving identity. Now that we know...

2017-07-10 (first published: 2017-06-27)

1,661 reads

The Three A’s: Authentication

by Brian Kelley

Databases – Infrastructure – Security

When I start talking with folks about security, one of the areas of confusion I often find has to do...

2017-07-05 (first published: 2017-06-26)

1,825 reads

Recording of PASS Security VC Webinar

by Brian Kelley

Databases – Infrastructure – Security

If you were unable to attend this month’s PASS Security Virtual Chapter webinar, The Dirty Business of Auditing, it has...

2017-06-29

560 reads

#SQLChat on Performance Issues

by Brian Kelley

Databases – Infrastructure – Security

Twitter can often be a great source of information for the SQL Community, especially with the #SQLHelp hashtag. Another resource...

2017-06-23

371 reads

PASS Security VC Presentation – The Dirty Business of Auditing

by Brian Kelley

Databases – Infrastructure – Security

On Thursday, June 22, at 1 PM EDT / 10 AM PDT, I’ll be presenting for the PASS Security Virtual Chapter.
Registration...

2017-06-19

367 reads

Speaking at Charleston PASS on May 18, 2017

by Brian Kelley

Databases – Infrastructure – Security

During the day of the 18th I’ll be at the Syntax Code and Craft Conference in Charleston, SC. That evening...

2017-05-12

318 reads

Slides from 24 Hours of PASS – Data Security

by Brian Kelley

Databases – Infrastructure – Security

As promised, here are my slides from the 24 Hours of PASS on Data Security:
S1 – Brian Kelley_WhatYouAbsolutelyMustKnowAboutSQLServerSecurity (.pptx – 733 KB)
S7 – Brian...

2017-05-09

383 reads

Slides from SSWUG 2017 Spring Virtual Conference

by Brian Kelley

Databases – Infrastructure – Security

As promised, here are the slides for my two presentations from SSWUG’s 2017 Spring Virtual Conference:
SSWUG_Spring_Building an Auditing Framework for...

2017-05-08

326 reads

All authors

Brian Kelley

Security Basics: The Principle of Least Privilege

The Three A’s: Auditing

The Three A’s: Authorization

The Three A’s: Authentication

Recording of PASS Security VC Webinar

#SQLChat on Performance Issues

PASS Security VC Presentation – The Dirty Business of Auditing

Speaking at Charleston PASS on May 18, 2017

Slides from 24 Hours of PASS – Data Security

Slides from SSWUG 2017 Spring Virtual Conference

Blogs

Designing a Storage Load Test for SQL Server

Questions and Answers from Running a Local LLM

Overview of Claude AI Models: Which One to Choose?

Forums

A question about how to store the address in the database

SSIS package failing intermittently on last Excel Component

T-SQL in SQL Server 2025: JSON_ARRAYAGG

Question of the Day

Multiple Sequence Values