Common Disillusions of the Job

Cybersecurity can be very rewarding but it also has some dark sides. Many professionals discover a set of hard truths once they're actually in the field. Nobody really talks about them but they are the reason why burnout, frustration, and turnover are common.

Here are the most common disillusions (with real-world examples) that people in cybersecurity eventually face:

1. Security is invisible when it works.

When nothing goes wrong, people assume youre unnecessary. When something does go wrong, people assume you failed.

  • If you prevent 100 attacks nobody notices.
  • If 1 incident slips through everyone notices.

This can feel thankless, because success is often measured by the absence of events which is inherently hard to quantify.

2. You can never prove youre secure only that youre not.

Security is not binary. You cant say: We are secure.You can only say: We have reduced risk. When an incident happens, the conclusion isnt: Security did its job 99% of the time.Its: Security failed. This constant ambiguity can be mentally exhausting.

3. Its easier to attack than to defend.

Attackers need to find one weakness. Defenders need to fix everything.

Even worse:

  • Attackers are creative and unconstrained.
  • Defenders are limited by budgets, politics, vendors, and compliance.

This imbalance is one of the biggest sources of frustration for defenders.

4. Security is often underfunded until after a breach.

Organizations typically treat security as a cost instead of a strategic asset. Budgets may be small, tools outdated, and staffing insufficient. Then once a major breach hits:

Suddenly money appears. But only because the damage already happened.

Many leaders describe this as security by tragedy.

5. Youre responsible for risk but dont control the environment.

Security is accountable for protecting the organization, but:

  • IT teams deploy systems
  • Developers ship code
  • Finance controls budgets
  • Leadership sets priorities

You may be the one blamed without being the one empowered.

This is one of the toughest realities of the job.

6. Compliance security but many companies prioritize compliance.

A common disillusion: Why are we focusing on passing audits instead of fixing actual risks? Compliance often becomes a checkbox exercise:

  • Policies written but not implemented.
  • Controls invalid in real-world conditions.
  • Leadership cares more about the audit report than genuine security posture.

Security leaders often feel theyre fighting this battle constantly.

7. Users are your biggest attack surface and your biggest frustration.

People click things. People reuse passwords. People disable security tools because they are annoying. After the 10th phishing simulation failure, many security analysts feel: Are we even making progress? Human behavior is one of the hardest problems in cybersecurity and often the most thankless.

8. Incident response is stressful, chaotic, and misunderstood.

People imagine incident response as controlled, methodical, and precise. Reality:

  • Middle-of-the-night calls
  • Incomplete logs
  • Pressure from leadership
  • Endless meetings
  • Long hours
  • Blame-hunting

Many cybersecurity professionals discover IR is more politics and crisis management than technical forensics.

9. Security can make you the Department of No.

Securitys job is to reduce risk. The businesss job is to move fast and generate revenue. This creates friction:

  • Security is slowing us down.
  • Do we really need this?
  • Youre blocking innovation.

Many security professionals feel they are seen as roadblocks rather than enablers.

10. The threat landscape changes faster than your ability to adapt.

Youll always feel behind. New attacks. New vulnerabilities. Your backlog grows faster than you can possibly resolve it.

Security is a field where perfection is impossible. That realization hits many professionals hard.

11. Emotional fatigue from constant negativity

Security people mostly deal with:

  • Risks
  • Threats
  • Failures
  • Vulnerabilities
  • Incidents
  • Misconfigurations
  • Breaches

You rarely see positive outcomes. This can lead to chronic pessimism if not managed carefully.

12. You must fight bureaucracy as much as threats.

One of the biggest surprises for many entering leadership:

Cybersecurity is as much a political job as a technical one.

You must negotiate:

  • budgets
  • priorities
  • exceptions
  • interdepartmental conflicts

Some CISOs say they spend 75% of their time in meetings not running security.

So Why Do People Still Choose Cybersecurity?

Because despite the disillusions, cybersecurity offers:

  • Purpose & mission
  • Problem-solving satisfaction
  • High demand and job security
  • The chance to genuinely protect people
  • Constant learning and innovation
  • Opportunities for leadership and impact

And for many even thankless victories still matter, because security is fundamentally about protecting what's important.