system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: What "Real Hacking" Is

Everytime I see a post about supposed hacking scandals across the web, it's inevitably met with responses like "those guys weren't hackers, they just did xyz, anyone could do that"

What exactly does more sophisticated hacking entail that these people are not doing? What kinds of things are difficult to achieve and require a high amount of skill vs. just abusing simple already known exploits?

Any insight very much appreciated!
gpt
Exploiting a computer system requires you to first identify a vulnerability. To be able to find a vulnerability in a program that you don't have the source for (you don't get part written for humans, just the part written for the computer) requires a person to know about all different kinds of vulnerabilities and be able to spot them by testing or by examining the program using special tools like debuggers and decompilers. 

Once you have found a vulnerability, you have to figure out what you can do with it. Maybe there's a way to make the program crash. Maybe you can get access to parts of the computer that are supposed to be protected. It takes a great deal of patience, knowledge, and skill to do this.

Sometimes a vulnerability becomes very well known and information (or, sometimes even whole software applications!) on how to exploit it becomes public. Using that public information, a person with much less knowledge and skill could exploit the vulnerable software just like if they'd figured it all out for themselves.