Once I was in, I connected to the law firm’s AViiON Data General computer system, running the firm’s telephone accounting application, where I had previously set up my early-warning system. The reason I connected to the AViiON first was as a safety measure: if after firing me my bosses had decided to change the passwords on the VMS Cluster—the firm’s primary computer systems—then any attempt I might have made to log in directly to the VMS Cluster with an incorrect password would have triggered a log-in-failure security alarm from the system that acted as the firm’s Internet gateway. By accessing the VMS Cluster through the AViiON instead, I ensured that an incorrect password would appear to be an attempt made from inside the firm. So any security alarm would not appear to be coming from the Internet gateway system, which would likely point to me since I was the only person who had previously had access to it.