Well, there's blithe, blatant, errant arrogance and nonsense for you ...
While Fastjack may (still) be the best hacker/decker/hacker out there even at 70+ years old*, he and every other hacker out there get to where they've gotten by first and foremost planning ahead. Your targets can't hit you if the baseline code of their programs doesn't recognize your presence; you can get the layout of the land, a sculpture of an opponent's design philosophy, by gently probing their network again and again, hundreds of times, over the course of a year.
Even for 'Jack, going toe to toe with an E-Ghost is going to be a) very bizarre, and b) a little twitchy. He did almost die fighting his own personal little Jormungand.
* -- I have to admit I do find it somewhat hard to imagine that; unless he's a spike baby elf/dwarf, he should give serious thought to stepping quietly aside, because degenerative neural structures and plaques are a real danger at his age.
