Hello!
Recently, I was invited to give a presentation on cybersecurity to a group of young developers at Onja, a social enterprise in Madagascar. Since they are at the beginning of their cybersecurity journey, I didn't want to bore them with the hackneyed OWASP Top 10 or overwhelm them with the plethora of security tools developers have to rely on these days to keep software safe and secure. Instead, I wanted to discuss something basic yet foundational for anyone dealing with cybersecurity - the security mindset.
In my experience, when it comes to security, the right mindset is what transforms an average engineer into a good one. It's not something you can buy or acquire quickly, but it's something everyone can learn over time and benefit from throughout their career. The earlier you realize this, the better. Similar to building personal wealth, the earlier you start learning and investing, the better your life will be.
Generally speaking, if you're dealing with anything related to security, the right mindset gets you roughly 80% of the job done; the remaining 20% comes from proper tooling, a good team, and other factors. I like to say that developing a security mindset is simple, but not easy.
This blog post is the presentation turned into a blog post. Read on!