Understanding the difference between vulnerability assessments and penetration testing

Vulnerability assessments and penetration testing are two of the most common phrases that are often used interchangeably. However, it is important to understand the difference between the two. To understand the exact difference, let's consider a real-world scenario.

A thief intends to rob a house. To proceed with his robbery plan, he decides to recon his robbery target. He visits the house (that he intends to rob) casually and tries to gauge what security measures are in place. He notices that there is a window at the back of the house that is often open and so it's easy to break in. In our terms, the thief just performed a vulnerability assessment. Now, after a few days, the thief actually goes to the house again and enters through the back window that he had discovered earlier during his recon phase. In this case, the thief performed an actual penetration into his target house with...