We’re all familiar with the stereotype. Hackers are people who wear hoodies and sit in someone’s basement on their computers, looking to infiltrate systems and wreak havoc in cyberspace. But the reality is very different. Many cyber intrusions today begin with a physical security breach, such as social engineering, picking a lock, or breaking into a facility to gain access to the network. Once the threat actor has that foothold, he or she can use it to steal a laptop, a password written on a Post-It note stuck to a desk, or plug in to a server to gain access to corporate secrets that could harm the organization. The threats posed by hackers with malicious intent force security professionals to address vulnerabilities in their systems and enhance their overall security posture to prevent additional harm. Keren Elazari, a senior researcher at the Interdisciplinary Cyber Research Center at Tel Aviv University, shared this perspective in a TED Talk in 2014. “We are often terrified and fascinated by the powers hackers now have,” she said. “They scare us. But the choices they make have dramatic outcomes that influence us all. So, I am here today because I think we need hackers, and in fact, they just might be the immune system for the information age. Sometimes they make us sick, but they also find those hidden threats in our world, and they make us fix it.”