COMPUTING to secretly reach information on someone else's computer system so that you can look at, use, or change it:
• The police are investigating a series of computer crimes involving people thought to have hacked confidential databases.
• He didn't have to hack into my personal computer to get the information.
— hacking noun [uncountable] :
• Hacking is easy if you know how to do it.
hack away at something phrasal verb [transitive]
to work slowly and with difficulty in order to reduce something:
• Budget cutters are being forced to hack away at their favorite domestic programs.
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hacking UK US /ˈhækɪŋ/ noun [U] IT
► the activity of illegally using a computer to access information stored on another computer system or to spread a computer virus: »
Hacking is now much more sophisticated and harder to detect than a few years ago.
Financial and business terms. 2012.