Hacking in the Media: Our Craft's Portrayal as Black Magic

Cartoon character of a whimsical wizard with exaggerated features.

People have asked: "Here is an IP address. Can you hack this? Can you hack me right now?"

Hacking takes time and skill. You can't just get an IP or an email and hack it in ten minutes unless the password is 1234.

I say, "No. I can't really do what you want me to do like this," and they think that I must suck at hacking.

The world seems to think that typing harder than normal and wearing a hoodie makes you a hacker, that you're somehow magically more capable and better at using a computer, that you know some secret command that spontaneously -- and without resistance -- can get into any computer.

Why does anyone think this way? Popular Culture -- that's it.

Aside from Mr. Robot, every TV show that has one "Computer Guy/Girl" makes hacking seem really... magical. Big words and acronyms are thrown around completely out of context.

Hooded figure using a laptop against a background of binary code and cybersecurity terms.

The Origin of "How Can I Hack This Gmail?"

"Someone plz tell me how to hack dis."

Bleh. People come to NullByte thinking they've found Merlin's Castle, that they have stumbled on a bunch of Computer Magicians that can, without thought, do anything to any computer in the world.

Conclusion

I could keep ranting and ranting about this, but I want to hear (read) what you guys have to say.

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