A source-backed Rankhog guide to r/cybersecurity: public rules, community context, posting fit, and startup-promotion risk before you publish.
By Anthony Riera, founder and operator of Rankhog.
Subreddit guides combine public Reddit source URLs, captured rules, visible verification dates, and Rankhog's account-safety workflow.
Current public stats
Rules can change, so Rankhog keeps verification dates and the original public Reddit sources visible.
These are the highest scoring posts Rankhog observed in r/cybersecurity over the past month, with what each one did differently. Rankhog watches this community continuously, so it sees posts when they are published and again as they climb.
Why it worked
Why it worked
Why it worked
This community is for discussing cybersecurity topics, research, and emergent threats or findings. The audience is people who are or aspire to be cybersecurity professionals. The moderators apply a simple test: if professionals would find a post insightful or would enjoy an insightful discussion around it, the post belongs. Personal or home cybersecurity questions do not belong here and must go to r/cybersecurity_help or r/techsupport instead. Memes, security fails, and homework help are also not welcome because they historically do not drive conversation.
The rules that matter most for a founder are Must be relevant to cybersecurity professionals, No low effort / poor quality posts, No advertising, and No excessive promotion. The No low effort / poor quality posts rule is the one that bans AI generated content outright, so anything machine written will be removed. The No advertising rule points you to their advertising guidelines and requires a Corporate Blog flair for educational articles that advertise a service. The No excessive promotion rule sets a hard limit: under 10 percent of your posts and comments here, and once per week at most per promoted entity. The No personally-identifiable information rule also matters because it bans linking to sites that require an email sign up to view content.
A good post here is a genuinely insightful piece of security research, analysis, or discussion that a working professional would find valuable. If you are a founder with a cybersecurity product, the safest entry is to share original research or a technical breakdown that stands on its own merit, not a product pitch. If your content lives on a corporate blog that also advertises a service, you must flair the post as Corporate Blog. Keep your self promotion under 10 percent of your total activity in this subreddit and promote any single entity at most once per week. Everything you share should be freely accessible with no email gate or sign up wall, because the No personally-identifiable information rule treats email gated content as a violation.
Avoid anything that is already answered in the FAQ, because those posts will be removed. Avoid personal or home security questions, memes, security fails, and homework help. Avoid AI generated content entirely, whether you post it directly or link to it. Avoid editorializing or pushing a political agenda, and if you discuss a political issue, keep it focused on the security implication. Avoid advertising without reviewing the advertising guidelines first, and never solicit DMs or calls instead of answering in the thread. Avoid exceeding the 10 percent self promotion limit or promoting the same entity more than once per week. Avoid linking to sites that require an email or any personally identifiable information to view content. During a major ongoing incident, avoid creating a standalone thread and look for the megathread instead.
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Yes, but it is conditional. Your self promotion must be under 10 percent of your total posts and comments here, and you may promote a given entity at most once per week. You also need to review the advertising guidelines linked in the rules.
No. The rules explicitly forbid AI and machine generated content across the subreddit, whether linked or posted directly.
No. The rules say a free sign up requiring your email is not truly free, and linking to such sites is not allowed.
No. Personal or home cybersecurity questions must go to r/cybersecurity_help or r/techsupport instead.
If it is a hack, vulnerability, or other major incident, moderators may lock or remove individual threads and redirect discussion to a megathread. Check for an existing megathread before posting.
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