General IT Experience counted as Cyber Experience?

Today I had an interview with HR at a company I was interested in. The topic of years of experience and salary came up. I have 15+ years of IT experience, including helpdesk, network admin, network design/consulting, and cybersecurity. I was surprised the person in HR didn't consider the general IT experience as what she called "cyber" experience. What do you all think? If you are a hiring manager would you consider IT experience specifically applicable to a cybersecurity job (information security job)? In other words if there was a job that asked for 7 years of experience, would it be acceptable for me to include my years of IT in the count?
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That company didn't have anything for me, but right after that I was offered a federal position that I'm considering. It's a cybersecurity job very similar to what I'm currently doing. I haven't officially accepted it yet as I'm still not sure. I have no experience with public sector jobs.
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