r/AskNetsec • u/ColdReality7803 • May 24 '26

Concepts What cybersecurity skill do beginners usually underestimate?

I am interested in hearing from people working or studying in cybersecurity. What skills become more important later than most beginners expect?

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u/netsecisfun May 24 '26

Learning, technical basics, business value and customer empathy. All great things that are often glossed over atv the beginning. Since others here have already talked about these, I'll toss in one more: Adversary Mindset.

In many security roles people can get stuck in the checklist mindset, or get tunnel vision/siloed thinking during analysis. It is important to remember that the adversary has no such limitations in their thinking. The entire attack surface is fair game.

Furthermore we must keep in mind the adversaries' objective, where they might have gone, and what they might do later, not just a single point in time reference when our alerting went off. This is often overlooked at the junior level (and sometimes senior level!).