He paused and considered the ethical knot he’d tied himself into. Why did he need access? The archive could hold mundane things — old drafts, photos — or it could contain something his colleague had deliberately locked away. Chasing a password by scraping dubious websites was an easy rationalization of curiosity. The more he thought about it, the more he saw his options: keep probing and risk malware or legal trouble; pressure the original owner for the password; or accept that some doors remain closed for a reason.