You have the "trace" program that allows a counter offensive, if you trace back to the home system of the hack, you are presented with 3 choices. one augment your diplomatic pressure and prevent further hacking action from the empire against you for 5 turn. And other one is a "blackout" that shutdown the system, making vulnerable to hacking attacks and maybe ground battles. You have the option to do nothing.

A good option also can be the "firewall", it prevents all level one hacks. level one hacks if I'm not mistaking are infiltrate the system, create a backdoor, there 3 others but are kind of situational. The level 2 hacking options are only available while hacking the capital system of someone.

What faction are you playing, if you are Umbral Choir, usually you are the one on the offensive hack-wise. And if you are unfamiliar with the hacking system, I strongly suggest trying the Umbral Choir. They are really fun and offer a nice opportunity to discover how to efficiently hack or defend yourself against it. They have so much bandwidth that they are beginner friendly on that matter.

Hoped it helped.

Thank you Sire ! I'm playing as the Vaulter faction.

Short answer is no, it's to my knowledge not possible to completely protect a system against hacks, but if you can guess which way hacks take it's always more efficient if you can put defensive programs on systems that block thoses ways instead of on the target system itself.

It's true that you can't fully defend yourself versus hacking, and it can be fine to let one pass through. You need to learn from which general direction it is coming from take a mental note of it and try creating those slowing network of defensive programs, which will then allow you to trap the hacking and cancel it. If you can know which empire is doing the hacks, it is even easier to defend yourself against it.

Thank you people!

The hacking system in this game is pretty interesting but takes a lot of playing to really understand it and the implications. I don't play in MP but I imagine there is a lot of cat and mouse.

My biggest gripe is that it's a lot of babysitting and even though it's ultimately worth it (to not let others exploit you or to open up a tough defensive system) it often feels like more constant effort than how often it pays out.

Sire_Aymeri wrote:
And if you are unfamiliar with the hacking system, I strongly suggest trying the Umbral Choir. They are really fun and offer a nice opportunity to discover how to efficiently hack or defend yourself against it.

Umbral Choir should never have to defend themselves against hacking, but I guess you could learn from the example of the AI empires defending themselves against you.