There have been hackers (and thieves and spies) who dress as one of the maintenance crew to get into a place and get closer to the computers there. Grab yourself a ladder and a can of paint, and see if there's any work you can pretend to be doing. This sort of impersonation works best in large companies where no one
will question you, because everyone assumes you're there because someone else wants you there. As long as you act like you belong, you will be accepted. One hacker/spy completely re-wallpapered the employee lounge while learning codes, names, and procedures over a five day period. You may not have the
stamina or the patience to invest in a scheme such as this, but similar actions can be worked effectively on a smaller scale. Besides, you may find that you're suited to being a delivery boy or sandwich girl for a few days.
You can gain access to dozens of offices by signing up at a few temporary agencies. Then, even if the jobs you are assigned don't take you near a computer you will be able to later use your temp-ing as justification for a return visit to the site. That is, you wouldn't necessarily come out and tell people you're there on another
temporary as-signment - you would let them think it, mean-while roaming freely around the building.
Cubicles are great - I love cubicles! Because once you're in one of those gigantic gray ice-tray rooms, you have the entire area to explore: no locked doors and lots of comers to hide behind. If you ever trespass into an office of cubicles, you can roam from one cube to the next, finding passwords taped to ink blotters and stuck to walls. You can find pictures of kids, people's names, hobbies, etc., from which to guess more passwords. You can eas-ily eavesdrop and find out inside dope on people, as well as shoulder surf with ease. Yes, to a hacker, those yucky gray cubicles can be wonderful!
Sometimes you will be trying helplessly to hack an on-site computer, but for whatever reason the data you type refuses to be entered. Note that on some terminals (or computers), non-standard data entry keys are used. Thus, instead of pressing Re-turn or Enter following a command, you type Fl, or Home, or Insert. I
know, it's crazy, but I've seen it.
On-site hacking doesn't only have to imply the hacking of computers behind closed doors. In air-ports one can often find unattended terminals. Step behind the counter and you can hack until you're chased away.
Before concluding this section on the hacking of private and on-site computers, I want to touch on an area that is connected to the subject by a tenuous thread.
