It was going to take a long time to get the data packets I needed. I had to sneak onto the systems, using some obscure entry points, or 'back doors' I had placed on those systems. And I had to be careful how I connected to the systems. I had to call into these systems by disguising my source point. I did this by piggybacking through several locations.
A lot of systems aren't really secure. And hackers know it, and sometimes get into systems just to poke around inside. Remember I told you about enjoying taking things apart to see how they work.
Anyhow, it wasn't hard to get into some systems. You just need various tools to get into systems. And I had them. Some I wrote myself, and some I had gathered from various hack sites on the Net. All of them are used to get into a system using various techniques. The whole idea is to get 'root' access to the system. Once you are the root user, you can do anything you want, most often just look around for stuff.
If you are really good, you can use various scripts or automated series of commands to hide your tracks, or to get data of various kinds. Some hackers like to dig into a system to grab customer information, or credit card numbers. Most don't do anything with the information except to show it to their hacker friends to brag about their exploits into a system.
I knew most of the tricks of the trade, and I had the tools. It would be fairly easy to grab some new data packets, and pick up some of the data packet files I had left on the systems I maintained.