If you try to hack a portal the 2nd time in a short time, you get a message, "The portal is hot" and has a 300 second delay. But it seems you always start with a 300 second delay. This afternoon, I was at a bus stop with 2 portals in range. I hacked one and recharged it, then I did the same to the other. I tried hacking the first one again, and I got a 300 second delay, while it clearly was 1 to 2 minutes later then I previously "re-hacked" a portal.
So I was wondering if this delay was just for me and if it was like a penalty for hacking the portal in such a short time. My philosophy is the hidden cooldown might just be two minutes and when "rehacking" on 1:59 you get a 300 second delay on top of it.
Best Answer
The hacking delay is personal and it is always 300 seconds long. The message shown though only changes when you have remaining 240, 120, 60, 30 and 10 seconds. So, if you keep trying to hack in the first minute, you'll keep getting the "300 seconds remaining" message.
All your successful hacks will trigger this 5 minutes delay. On top of that your first Hack triggers a 4 hours cooldown. After your 4th consecutive successful Hack on that portal it will be "burned down" and will prevent further hacks until the four hours have passed. This cooldown too is personal, to prevent its use as an attack (burning down all the portals in an area to prevent enemy hacks)