To hack a computer, select Secure Access while in the Computer interface. You can do this by interacting with the (game model) keyboard, or by using your EEV. Distance hacking using your wireless EEV is more difficult than hacking the device directly. Shortens timers I think. If the timer runs out, an alarm is sounded


Once you select "Secure Access", the mini-game will start with a timer in your bottom right over the IP locker readout. Commiting dull green wrong values (or IP strings) or timing out will sound an alarm. Yellow matching numbers, as opposed to dull green, mean that value is correct. Bright green values mean the Yellow number was locked in. Left and Right will change your selected IP Value in the Lockbox. Pressing interact will automatically lock that number set in place, meaning you don't have to worry about memorizing it and as well, it eliminates the non-match IPs from the list on the left. Your goal is to find the 'winning' IP on that list. Lock all 4 number sets and the mini-game will automatically end and you get to exploit their computer connection. You probably didn't need me to explain that, but here we are.The game is simple enough that, that was how I won the mini-game through the entirety of Chaos Theory with very few fails. little did I know...

So as I said, you can get by fine without this because the tutorial doesn't tell you much and it's not really put anywhere else. Quickly, here are facts that aide your hackyness. Heavily lifted from:
https://www.g4li.org/splinter-cell-3-chaos-theory/hacking-gameplay.html so I don't have to type it all.

>As I said earlier - Distance hacking using your wireless EEV is more difficult than hacking the device directly.
>Different security devices can be more or less difficult to hack.
>You can abort a hacking attempt at any time by pressing the Escape or Crouch key.
>Aborting when the time Is in the red zone will sound an alarm.
>You can manually scroll the IP list with forward and backward (where as left and right scroll the lockbox)
> If you're in a jam, you can guess which IP string is the correct one.
>On PC you can click on the numbers with your mouse (either the list or the lockbox) and it will confirm it.

And more subtly

>>If you are using the regular config files to increase resolution (and not the widescreen hack) the mouse will (may) not work. Also <b>importantly</b>, The top of the IP list will be missing the top part meaning using process of elimination is harder if you can't think of the lower bounds of values.
> The non-correct IP values in the lockbox can be used to eliminate possibilities. So in the photo example, we see that the first value '191' in the bottom right is dull green. So, even though the game hasn't randomly highlighted '192' (yet) , we can (mentally) remove '191' from the possible ip list. In this case it means we can tell the game to commit to the remaining IP without locking in the corresponding value in the lock box. This is helpful because the value won't always show up to lock in.

Maybe this was all obvious to most folks, but I figure I'd make the info available. I don't do guides much. Trusting the values to highlight just always annoyed me as a kid.