Joan Orifha

Cybersecurity and Technology Professional with hands-on experience in SOC Operations, Threat Detection, Incident Response, Digital Forensics, and Network Security. I combine cybersecurity expertise with a background in Banking & Finance, bringing a strong understanding of risk, business, and technology. My expertise extends into AI Security, AI Governance, technology strategy, and digital transformation.

My aim is to help organizations build resilience as we move toward a more digital economy, leveraging technology to optimize operations, manage risk, strengthen security, and drive sustainable business growth.

IT Support Engineer / Cybersecurity Analyst - Systemspec - Nigeria

(2026-01)

• Coordinated IT, security, and compliance operations across multiple business units, supporting employee onboarding, offboarding, access management, and technology operations.
• Developed a centralized audit tracking and documentation framework, reducing audit coordination workload by 50% and improving visibility, accountability, and submission tracking.
• Optimized financial approval workflows by implementing structured stakeholder communication and escalation processes, reducing approval turnaround time from 4 weeks to 2 weeks, an improvement of 50%.
• Supported the design and deployment of an open-source SOC environment, strengthening security monitoring, endpoint visibility, incident response, and threat detection capabilities following a security breach.
• Conducted IT infrastructure and network capacity assessments, identifying bandwidth limitations and providing data-driven recommendations to support infrastructure scalability and business growth.
• Supported email security and domain migration activities, investigating DNS, MX, TXT, authentication, and phishing-related issues to resolve security and communication risks.
• Led technology implementation for a subsidiary team by designing a centralized project management and collaboration environment, improving task ownership, documentation, project visibility, and team accountability.

Security Operations Center Analyst - Cyblack - United Kingdom

(2025-09 - 2025-12)

• Conducted malware analysis on multiple malware families using static, behavioral, and dynamic analysis techniques, producing detection recommendations that improved SOC threat visibility.
• Researched emerging cyber threats including Helldown Ransomware, developing custom YARA detection rules to strengthen threat detection capabilities.
• Led a team of 5 analysts during cybersecurity tabletop exercises, improving incident response coordination and reducing response decision time by 35%.
• Performed cyber threat intelligence research by mapping adversary tactics to the MITRE ATT&CK Framework, enabling proactive threat hunting.
• Collaborated on incident response investigations involving malware infections, suspicious network activity, and endpoint compromise scenarios.
• Produced technical reports translating complex security findings into actionable recommendations for technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Security Operations Analyst Intern - Cybergirls - Lagos

(2023-03 - 2024-12)

• Conducted threat hunting exercises across simulated enterprise environments using the MITRE ATT&CK Framework, identifying 40+ Indicators of Compromise (IOCs) mapped to adversary behaviors.
• Designed and executed phishing awareness campaigns involving 100+ participants, improving employee awareness and reducing simulated phishing success rates by 45%.
• Performed vulnerability assessments and security analysis to identify security weaknesses and recommend mitigation strategies aligned with cybersecurity best practices.
• Collaborated with multidisciplinary teams to strengthen organizational cyber resilience through proactive threat monitoring and security awareness initiatives.

BSc - Banking and Finance - University of Abuja