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?