Thanks for your help I thought it may have been a bug. Instead i think Ive figured out that hacking and lock picking etc scales to your skill. When I turned level 2, 3, and 4 I dropped all my points into the tech skill and bam the codes got shorter and the time allotted decreased. On my second attempt at this game Im keeping the tech and sabotage skills at 1. to my surprise i havent seen anything above a 6 circuit lock and 30 second hacking time allotment. I could be wrong but it looks like the puzzles are matched to your skill. which imo is amazingly upsetting. i have not tested this beyond my two "mikes" so i accept i could be entirely wrong.
anyway clearly this isnt a bug sorry to whatever admin needs to move this.
thanks again for the advice