Marissa Ball

Empowe-r Women of infosec founding member

Marissa is a real-life success story on what it means to just “Google it”. She initially began her professional career in the medical field as a Clinical Pathology Technician, and holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Biology from The Ohio State University. However, her curiosity drove her to learn web development, which evolved into teaching herself Test Driven Development practices through programming and app development before venturing into cybersecurity. Marissa created her own self study guide based on industry exam standards and utilized mind maps, articles, and Google. She believes in the importance of being a lifelong student and giving back to the community. As an active member of local security organizations, Marissa was recently elected as Director of Communications for Central Ohio ISSA. She maintains the websites for ISSA and ReynCon Educational Services and Training, in addition to being the coordinator for the ISSA InfoSec Summit student panel track. For the past 3 years, she has participated on the ISSA InfoSec Summit planning committee, and has designed banners for several events. Dedicates her free time mentoring aspiring cybersecurity professionals, sharing her passion and insight on how to break into the industry. Marissa is currently a Security Analyst at a major critical infrastructure company. As a member of the Cybersecurity Intelligence and Response team, she is responsible for actively collecting intelligence, monitoring the network for signs of compromise, and mitigating threats in real time. Marissa was appointed Security Team Member of the Month for her efforts in revamping the on-boarding training for new team members.