Growing up in northeast Pennsylvania in the early 2000s, Marina Polachek loved playing video games. Pokemon Silver, Super Mario World 64 and Kingdom Hearts were among her favorites. Her parents encouraged her interest in video games, as well as kinetic learning activities, such as Legos.
Years later, that technology focus inspired her studies at Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies, where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in information management and technology in 2017 and a master’s degree in information systems in 2019.
That technology trend continued into her career. She now works in operational technology and industrial control systems for Accenture Federal Services, where she focuses on the cybersecurity realm, including governance, risk and compliance.
“I find it humorous that I ended up in a technology-related field because of what my parents had me engaged with as a kid outside of planned or scheduled activities,” Polachek said.
Now living with her parents and working from home – a setup that brings her immense joy – Polachek says she is loving the “career adventure” she’s on.
“The kind of work I do for AFS is based within the cybersecurity realm, but it would be a disservice to state I only operate with one aspect of the realm,” she said. “This is due to how we work on different projects. For instance, my first project was around Energy & Operational Technology. My second project was around something known as ‘Cybersecurity Maturity Model’ and policy.”
Polachek is currently working with a team on a modernization project for a U.S. government warehouse. Part of her job is understanding how the cyber-physical security realms play a factor in the project, including what devices need to be placed around the warehouse, where they will be housed and how the operating backend will function in regards to vulnerabilities and security. She is also helping another team that is equipping employees with proper credentials and access.
“It is pretty cool to know that the goals this multi-party project is working toward will have an actual effect in the real world for people working for the client, wherever they may be, and ensuring they are always ready,” Polachek said.
Her fascination with cybersecurity began in college, when iSchool Associate Professor Lee McKnight inspired her to learn about the career field. With his guidance, Polachek conducted a research-based capstone paper on Microgrid Cyber-Physical Security, Industrial Control Systems and SCADA Networks. That paper led her to win a National Science Foundation travel grant to attend the IEEE’s Smart Computing Conference in Sicily, Italy in 2018.
“This conference and paper truly were life-altering in the best way!” Polachek said. “I found that, ‘Hey, maybe this Operational Technology stuff is something I can be successful with. It seems to involve talking to people. I’m good at this. It requires low-to-no traditional programming, such as Python, which is super for me, and it seems to be an emerging field. OK, that sounds good enough for me!”
Polachek is grateful to McKnight for his career guidance, and she encourages current iSchool students to get to know their professors like she did.
“They may request you as a teaching assistant for their course in the future or you may be able to conduct research under their guidance and open up entirely unthought of pathways for you in work and life,” she said.
As for her own work and life, Polachek has one very specific goal for her future.
“I will be the greatest retiree of all time! That is my ultimate goal or dream in life,” she said. “As for more normal goals in my life: I aspire to hit 80s for 18 holes of golf, visit all seven continents in my lifetime and hopefully be able to take MommaChek on a Southern America cruise featuring the Antarctic Experience a couple years from now.”