cracking

cracking n.  The act of breaking into a computer system;
   what a {cracker} does.  Contrary to widespread myth, this does
   not usually involve some mysterious leap of hackerly brilliance,
   but rather persistence and the dogged repetition of a handful of
   fairly well-known tricks that exploit common weaknesses in the
   security of target systems.  Accordingly, most crackers are only
   mediocre hackers.