Computer hacking  - high-tech crime 

I. Copy out the new words from the text, read and translate it.

You can rob a bank without leaving a house these days. Who needs stocking masks, guns and get away cars? If you are a computer whizz-kid, you could grab your first million armed with nothing more dangerous than a personal computer (PC), a telephone and a modem to connect them. All you have to do is dial into the networks that link the computers in large organizations together, type in a couple of passwords and you can rummage about in the information that is stored there to your heart's content.

Fortunately it isn't always quite as easy as it sounds. But, as more and more information is processed on computer,  crime seems set to grow.

No one knows exactly how much money  is stolen by key-board criminals-banks and other companies tend to be very secretive if it happens to them. It doesn't exactly fill customers with confidence of they think their bank account can be accessed by anyone with a PC!

Some experts believe that only around a tenth of all computer crimes are actually reported.

Most computer crimes are “inside jobs”, where staff with access to the company's computers fiddle with the records. A comparatively small amount are committed by the more glamorous – and headline – grabbing –hackers.

The true hacker, it seems, doesn't t do it for financial gain. The thrill appears to be not in getting rich, but in beating the system.

“It has never been my intention to steal anything”, said Singh, one of the Britain's notorious hackers. “I really see myself as a highly skilled software engineer.” Edward Singh first came to public attention after claiming that he had hacked into American and British government and military computers.

His mission seems to be to prove just how insecure their systems are.

As with everything else, hackers start young in the States. A 12 year-old boy in Detroit was accused of entering a company's credit rating computer and distributing the numbers he found there. His mother told reporters that he spent up to 14 hours on his computer during the weekend. ”He didn't bother me “, she said. “ I figured computers, that's the thing of the day.”

Prevention is probably easier than detection, and many companies now spend lots of time and money devising programs using passwords and codes.

Of course, all this is no use at all if computer users tell each other their passwords.

There are plenty of software companies who specialise in writting software that make computers hacker-proof. One company in the States set out to prove that its system can defeat hackers by asking over 2000 of them  to try to hack in. The hackers were given two weeks to discover the secret message stored on two PCs in offices in New York  and San Francisco. The  message reads: ‘The persistent hunter who wins his prize sooner or later becomes the hunted.” But not one hacker managed it.

Task One

Translate the words into Russian and give all possible word-combinations with them:

hack – hacker – hacking.

detect – detective – detection

use – user – usage

Task Two

Give all possible word-combinations with the word “computer”:

пользователь

эксперт (особенно в юном возрасте)

диск

Computer   информация

журнал

преступление

преступник

мошенничество

Task Three

Translate the word-combinations into Russian:

high-tech crime; computer hacking; key-board criminals; armed with a personal computer; to rummage about in the information; to be held to ransom by a gang of hackers; to be the scourge of organizations; to compete for the title of the best hacker; to do something for financial gain; insecure computers; a highly skilled engineer.

Task Four

Give the Russian equivalents to the following English word-combinations:

войти в сеть; доступ в компьютер; взломать систему компьютера; ограбить банк; персональный компьютер; привлекать внимание общественности; проводить время за компьютером; пароль сети; тратить много времени и денег; нанести поражение хакерам; в обмен на …

Task Five

Choose the answer which you think fits best:

1.            Banks may pay computer criminals

a)       to give back information they have stolen;

b)      to explain what their technique is;

c)       not to commit the same crime again;

d)      not to pass on information they have stolen.

2.            Companies do not always report computer crime because they

a)       think it would create bad publicity;

b)      don't expect the criminals to be caught;

c)       don't want the police to investigate;

d)      think the criminals are members of their staff.

3.            The computer hackers' motive seems to be

a)       to win a competition;

b)      to make a lot of money;

c)       to overcome a challenge;

d)      to appear in the newspapers.

4.            The mother of the 12 year-old hacker in Detroit

a)       had been worried about the time her son spent at his computer;

b)      thought her son's interest in his computer was normal;

c)       had been involved in her son's criminal activity;

d)      had tried to prevent her son's criminal activity.

5.            What was the result of one software company's attempt to prove that it's security systems were effective?

a)       It was a complete success.

b)      It was a partial success.

c)       It was a failure.

d)      The results were inconclusive.

Task Six

Find out the answers to the following questions:

1.            What is computer hacking?

2.            What does a hacker have to do to grab his first million armed with nothing more dangerous than a PC ?

3.            Why do the hackers do what they do?

4.            How seriously are the companies taking the problem of making computers hacker –proof?

                            Real Crime and Pseudo Crime

I. Copy out the new words from the text, read and translate it.

In the traditional English detective story, written by someone like Agatha Christie, the crime is nearly always murder. It often takes place in a country house, and the local inspector, who undertakes the investigation, is incapable of solving the case and needs the help of a private detective.

The detective begins by making a series of inquiries and looking for clues. The suspects are usually upper-class, and have a motive for killing the victim. The detective eventually resolves the mystery by inviting all those under suspicion to meet. He sets a trap for the murder, and establishes his guilt by going through the evidence. The murderer obligingly gives himself away, and confesses, providing the proof of the detective's accusation. The grateful police inspector arrives to make the formal charge and put the murderer under arrest. In real life, the crime is usually not murder but an offence against property, on a scale ranging from shoplifting through theft to burglary and robbery with violence. Other offences involving money, like fraud and forgery, are also much more common than murder. If the case is solved, or it is usually because  the police receive information that puts them on the track of criminal, or he leaves traces behind him such as fingerprints. Sometimes offering a reward helps to convict someone. But few thieves or robbers confess unless they know they will be found guilty and hope to get a lighter sentence, and the police seldom invite them to a party with other suspects.

 

Task One

Read and translate the following words. Learn them.

to investigate - investigator - investigation;

to suspect - suspect - suspicion;

to convict - convict - conviction;

to inform - informant - information;

to detect - detective - detection;

to rob- robber - robbery;

to inspect - inspector - inspection.

Task Two

Name all types of crimes given in the text and learn them.

Task Three

Name the profession of the people who take part in investigating crimes.

Task Four

Find the synonyms among the following words and word-combinations. Translate them into Russian.

To search; crime; killer; to look for; offence; murderer; to solve the case; criminal; trace; to investigate the case; offender; track. 

Task Five

Give Russian equivalents to the following English word-combinations:

local inspector; to undertake the investigation; the help of a private detective; to make a series of inquires; to look for clues; to have a motive for killing; to resolve the mystery; to be found guilty; to get a lighter sentence; to offer a reward; the proof of the detective's accusation; to put the murderer under arrest; to make the formal charge.

Task Six

Translate the Russian word-combinations into English:

традиционная английская детективная история; решать дело; под подозрением; установить вину; преступление против собственности; кража со взломом и грабеж с применением насилия; мошенничество и подлог; наводить на след преступника; оставлять после себя следы в виде отпечатков пальцев.

Task Seven

Answer the questions: 

1.            Which of the following ( burglar, murderer, victim, thief, suspect)

a)       is innocent ?

b)      may be guilty?

c)       is guilty?

2.     Which of the following (a clue, a confession, fingerprints, a motive, suspicion )

a)       might help to form the case for an accusation?

b)      would be accepted in court as proof?

c)       is neither evidence nor proof?

3.            Which of the following crimes normally takes place in …(burglary, fraud, robbery, theft, shoplifting)

a)       a bank?

b)      a house?

c)       an office?

d)      a shop?

e)       all of these?

Task Eight

What do we call a person  who … ?

1)           steals things from people’s pockets in crowded places,

2)           betrays his or her country to another state,

3)           takes away people by force and demands  money for their return,

4)           buys and sells drugs illegally,

5)           breaks into houses and other buildings to steal,

6)           takes control of a plane by force and makes the pilot change the course,

7)           makes false money or signatures,

8)           gets secret information from another country,

9)           brings goods into a country illegally without paying tax,

10)      threatens to tell other people your secrets  if you don’t pay him money:

a)       forger,

b)      blackmailer,

c)       burglar,

d)      spy,

e)       kidnapper,

f)        smuggler,

g)       pickpocket,

h)      traitor,

i)         drug dealer,

j)         hijacker.

Task Nine

Place the following in the correct order in time, numbering them 1 to 6: accusation ( ), arrest ( ), charge ( ), proof ( ), sentence ( ), suspicion  ( ).

1.            The crime is nearly always murder.

2.            The crime is usually committed by an upper-class person.

3.            The motive is usually financial gain.

4.            A private detective solves the crime and arrests the criminals.

5.            The case is solved with the help of evidence such as fingerprints.

6.            Criminals usually confess to their guilt when they realize there is evidence incriminating them.

Task Ten

Answer the questions:

1.            What is a crime in the traditional  English detective  Story ?

2.            Where does it take place ?

3.            Why does the local  inspector need the help of a private detective ?

4.            How does the detective resolve the mystery ?

5.            What is a crime in real life ?

6.            What helps to convict someone ? 

Text for additional reading and discussion

Scandal.

Charmless Chalmers

a)            Read the article about politician Andrew Chalmers. In pairs, explain the crimes /offences in the article in your own words.

b)           In groups. Do you think Andrew Chalmers is unusually dishonest for a politician?

Here's the list of his «mistakes»!

1.            Drink-driving.

While in Paris for a European summit meeting about road safety, Chalmers was stopped for speeding. He was then arrested when he was also found to be drunk. He said to the arresting officer, «You're overreacting! I do this all the time in England!»

2.            Fiddling expenses.

While he was an MP, Chalmers' expenses for business trips often totalled thousands of pounds. He had to be more careful when an accountant noticed that he had charged for lunch in three different luxury hotels on the same day – in three different European cities!

3.            Shoplifting.

Chalmers was stopped by store detectives at a top department store in West London as he attempted to leave the shop with three bottles of champagne under his coat. Chalmers claimed that he had forgotten they were there. He was released  with a warning.

4.            Burglary.

A week later the police were called by a witness who had seen a man climbing out of a window of the Houses of Parliament. Andrew Chalmers was arrested at the scene of the crime carrying two bottles of champagne which he had taken from the fridge in the MPs' dining room. «All the shops are closed,» he told the police.

5.            Forgery.

In order to show how popular his ideas were, Chalmers sometimes forged his colleagues' signatures on various documents and letters of support. «I knew they would support me. I didn't want to bother them with details like signing papers,» he argued.

6.            Fraud.

Chalmers' worst «mistake» was his business venture with known fraudster Seymour Cripes-Tottingly. Chalmers used his position and name to get rich and famous people to invest in their new conpany, «Grow Richer», which made farm equipment for the Third World. But all the money went into overseas bank accounts under the names of Chalmers and Cripes-Tottingly and no-one actually started any company! Chalmers was found guilty of fraud at his trial, where his excuses failed to impress the jury. He was sentenced  to nine months in prison.

After his release from prison on 9^th  January, Chalmers went on a six-month cruise. Maybe he was hoping that everyone would forget.

(Moscow News. №5. 2003).