What's all the fuss about hackers?

What comes to your mind when you think of the word hacker? In recent decades, the word hacker has almost become synonymous with the notion of a genius computer nerd who can get access to any system within seconds and can control anything. From someone who can control traffic signals through their computer to someone penetrating the Pentagon's network, the world of movies and fiction has created a specific image of a hacker. Like everything else in movies, this is just a work of fiction; the real world of hacking and penetration testing is quite different and vastly more complex and challenging.

The real world is filled with unknowns. Carrying out a successful attack on a victim requires a lot of patience, hard work, dedication, and probably a bit of luck. The world of computer security and hacking is a constant cat-and-mouse chase. Developers create a product, hackers try to break it and find vulnerabilities and exploit them, developers find out about these vulnerabilities and develop a patch for them, hackers find new vulnerabilities, and this cycle continues. Both actors try to outsmart each other in this constant race. With each iteration, the process becomes more and more complex, and attacks are becoming more and more sophisticated to bypass detection mechanisms. Similarly, detection mechanisms are also getting smarter and smarter. You can clearly see a pattern here.