IV. Complete the text with the nouns in the box to form appropriate noun phrases. There are two nouns that you do not need to use.
| century | fame | key | life | information | nonsense | technology | time |
With the development of (l) ________ in recent years, the way of (2) _________ for a great number of people has changed beyond recognition. Because of increased speed in the transfer of (3) _________ news and ideas travel around the world in seconds. Whatever we want to know is available at the touch of a (4) __________. Not long after the turn of the (5) _________ scientists expect us to have computers which are so small and powerful that they will fit into our pockets. Because of this, some believe that newspapers and books will become a waste of (6) __________ as we will have all the information we need through our personal computers.
V. Complete the following sentences, using the phrases in the box.
| It is a good idea | It doesn’t matter |
| It wasn’t until | It seems impossible |
| It is necessary | it is incredible |
| It is unwise | It is only a matter of time |
1. _________ to imagine a world without computers.
2. _________ to have a CD-ROM drive to make use of multimedia facilities.
3. _________ the mid-1990s that the Internet became easily accessible to the general public.
4. _________ how our lives have changed with the advent of the computer.
5. __________ before every household has a computer,
6. __________ to leave CDs and floppy disks in direct sunlight.
7. __________ to read the instructions on computer hardware carefully.
8. __________ how old you are, it’s never too early or late to learn to use a computer.
Use of English
Read the text below. Use the word given in capitals at the end of each line to form a word that fits in the space in the same line. There is an example at the beginning (0).
The impact of technology
The 21 st century will no doubt see a great (0) ADVANCE (advancement) in electronics and technology as the (l) POPULAR (___________) of computers increases all around the world. For some, this technology will mean an (2) INVADE (____________) of their privacy, but for others it will be welcomed. In business and education as well as the home, the idea of sending your (3) CORRESPOND (___________) through email is surely an exciting idea. The greatest (4) ATTRACT (___________) must be the fact that there is no need to waste time going out to buy stamps and posting the letter off to its destination. Of course, as our (5) DEPEND (___________) on the computer and technology grows, there is also the problem of (6) SECURE (____________) Users are afraid that personal (7) INFORM (____________) such as bank account numbers will become accessible to people who may misuse it. To combat this problem, there must be greater (8) COOPERATE (____________) between banks and on-line services.
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VII. Read the following sentences and decide which answer a, b, c or d best fits each space.
1. Having a computer at home allows you to have all kinds of information at your ______.
| a) arm | b) fingertips | c) fingers | d) hand |
2. She is a specialist in the __________ of Information Technology.
| a) job | b) subject | c) topic | d) field |
3. The Internet allows users to download free _______.
| a) sites | b) hardware | c) viruses | d) software |
4. Video _____ can only be done if you have a camera with your computer.
| a) conversations | b) conferencing | c) discussions | d) meetings |
5. The bigger the memory on your hard disk, the more ______ you can store.
| a) details | b) money | c) data | d) storage |
6. Most hard disks today have a ________ capacity of 200 megabytes.
| a) storing | b) memory | c) huge | d) storage |
7. When you connect to the Internet it is said that you are ________.
| a) on-line | b) on | c) in-line | d) integrated |
8. A computer should be seen as a ______ we use to help us do our work.
| a) disc | b) mechanism | c) tool | d) source |
9. Technology has indeed had a significant _______ on our lives today.
| a) change | b) role | c) effort | d) effect |
VIII. Read the text and answer the questions:
Text
ARE YOU SAFE FROM ON-LINE CROOKS?
ANDREW ARKINSTAIL, a 34-year-father of three in Maxville, Ont, needed a laptop for his home-based business. Like millions, of other Canadians, who spent $ 4.4 billion shopping online last year, he felt comfortable buying in the digital marketplace.
Surfing computers-for-sale listings on Yahoo last April, he found exactly what he was looking for – an IBM ThinkPad advertised at an irresistible price on the professional-looking web pages at Computer cheap.com. After confirming shipping details and the company’s seven-day money-back guarantee via e-mail, he express-posted a $ 2,100 certified cheque, as requested, to the company’s Vancouver address.
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Three days later, after the cheque was cashed, Arkinstall е-mailed the company to ask why the computer hadn’t arrived. The seller replied that a mix-up with the cheque at the bank had held things up and promised to throw in a DVD drive. When Arkinstall demanded a contact phone number, Computer Cheap’s web site suddenly vanished and Arkinstall’s e-mails went unanswered.
He called the Better Business Bureau of Mainland В. С. “Mr. Arkinstall was not the first person to call us about being swindled by this company,” director Valeric MacLean says.
When he reported the fraud to Det. Vello Kleeband of the Vancouver Police Computer Investigative Support Unit, he discovered the seller was a juvenile scam artist under investigation for a string of on-line frauds with victims as far away as California. Says Arkinstall, “I’ve learned the hard way that it’s “user beware” on the Internet.”
Sgt. Bill Cowper of the Halifax Regional Police Technological Support Section says too many people are leaving themselves vulnerable to fraud when they log on to the Net.
Known as the city’s Internet Cop. Cowper has trained 16 police investigators to combat proliferating computer crime. “Cyber fraud is growing as fast as the Internet,” he says, but he estimates that less than ten percent of Internet crime is reported because embarrassed victims are reluctant to come forward.
Before sending credit-card numbers to an on-line merchant, ensure that the site is secure.
With up to 80 percent of households expected to be on-line by 2005, experts like Cowper predict that Internet fraud will only get worse.
Phillip McKee, assistant director for Internet Fraud Watch at the National Fraud Information Centre in Washington, D.C., says “People are being scammed оn-line in record numbers.” In 1996 Internet Fraud Watch reported 1,000 incidents of Internet fraud in the United States and Canada. Last year complaints soared to more than 10,000. “Complaints about on-line shopping have doubled in the last year,” says McKee, “making cyber fraud involving goods for sale our number one complaint.”
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Const. Michael McCrery of the RCMP’s Computer Crime Unit in Montreal says the ability to reach hundreds of thousands of people anonymously, by setting up slick web sites or through mass e-mailing, makes the internet a bonanza for criminals. “They don’t have to pay for a stamp or even make a phone call to snare victims,” he says. The lack of signatures and face-to-face transactions makes it easy for criminals to operate on-line.
Says Ontario Provincial Police Detective Const. Gaston Laforge, at Phone Busters, an agency in North Bay, Ont., that collects information on telemarketing complaints nationwide, “If a single, on-line scammer reaches several thousand people through “spamming” (mass-e-mailing) or phony web-sites, and hooks just 100 people for $ 100 each, he rakes in $ 10,000, with his only costs his computer and Internet access.”
What’s Safe Online?
“Reputable online merchants have contact phone numbers and a proper business address”, Kleeband says “If the only method of communication between buyer and seller is by e-mail, shop elsewhere.”
At Kleelpand’s office in downtown Vancouver, I watch as he inputs the mailing address posted on a suspect web site that lists no contact phone number. It shows up as a P.O. box. “This is typical of a scam,” he tells me. “This guy uses a mailbox to pick up cheques from victims who will never see their goods.”
Kleeband advises against sending cash, cheques or money orders to anyone you do not know. Use уоur credit card. If fraud is involved, the card company can withhold payment. “PhoneBusters” Laforge advises that, before sending money to an on-line-seller-consumers check with the Better Business Bureau in the area where the company is listed to see if there have been complaints.
Says Sgt. Robb McGirr of the Port. Moody, B.C., police: “Companies doing business on-line have to improve their security. Some savvy people can obtain unauthorized access to business transactions that are conducted through web sites.” His department arrested two petty thieves and a 16-year-old computer hacker last August when the trio charged $ 2,000 worth of computer equipment to a credit-card number belonging to a man in Maine. The suspicious store owner called the police.
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“We eventually found three nobodies sitting, in a basement punching keys, defrauding people as far off as Australia,” says McGr. “They’d stolen 20 credit-card numbers along with their expiration dates and credit limits, either by hacking into web sites or by intercepting the information as it was send.”
Before sending credit-card numbers to an on-line merchant, check the security notice on your screen when transmitting information. If thelock’s cyberthieves, who can electronically hijack credit or personal information. A secure site will ensure encrypted on-line transactions.
Scam artists also target popular auction sites like eBay and Yahoo! Auctions. “The most common form on-line auction fraud involves goods not delivered or the, value of what is sent being only a fraction of what was paid,” says Sgt. Barry Elliott, call centre co-ordinator at PhoneBusters. Internet Fraud Watch reports auction rip-offs are now the most frequently reported type of Internet fraud.
Old Scams Go High-Tech
“Earn $4000 a month at home,” touts the e-mail in my mailbox. Others promise a cure for heart disease, get-rich-quick investments or free travel. All these scams require consumers to send money. Scammers use commercially available software to “harvest” thousands of e-mail addresses from header information on web-site postings or from people signing up for on-line contests. Their sole purpose is to generate e-mail lists that are often sold to other scammers and unscrupulous marketers. “Victims of these scams are most often those who can least afford it,” says Laforg.
When her mother became ill, Linda Russell, 58 found it hard to make ends meet. The teacher from Tennessee was a good typist and searched Internet sites offering assistance in finding work-at-home employment. She found Friends From Homer an Ontario company. For a $ 40 fee, they promised her clerical work. She sent the cheque, which was cashed. When she heard nothing further, she e-mailed the company half a dozen times without response.
When Russell contacted Leslie King of the Better Business Bureau of Ottawa and Hull, she was told that several people in the U.S. and Canada had reported being ripped off by Friends From Home.
“Work-at-home schemes are among the most common frauds we see.” King says, “Be suspicious of offers $ 40 for stuffing an envelope. They just don’t make sense.”
Pyramid schemes, chain letters and phony diploma mills are other classic scams that have migrated from telephones and fax machines to the Internet. Says Andrew Mc. Alpine, who investigates illegal pyramid schemes for Industry Canada, “Be careful before responding to e-mails offering business opportunities.”
Travel scams are an old swindle now showing up on the Net. Stan Bosco, assistant director of consumer affairs with the American Society of Travel Agents, says: “Avoid paying a company for travel that won’t be ticketed or take place for 12 to 18 months. When it comes time to get your tickets, the dates you want are often not available, restrictions may make it more expensive or the company has disappeared.”
Travel certificates or vouchers arriving by e-mail with congratulations on winning a bargain fare or free travel are come-ons; the real fare is far higher or the free travel is bait offered by high-pressure time-share pushers. “Luxury cruises sometimes become six-hour ferry rides and deluxe accommodations can turn out to be run-down dumps,” Bosco says.
Another costly fraud is the telephone scam. An e-mail warns you of an impending legal action, congratulates you on winning a prize, or offers urgent information about a family member and asks you to call a phone number for details. Victims are unaware, as they are put on hold or stalled by scammers, that they have called an offshore area code – usually in the Caribbean – and are racking up phone charges of up to $ 25 a minute. Often, charges of hundreds of dollars appear on next month’s phone bill. “The crooks divide the take with the unwitting phone company that supplies the pay-per-call lines,” says Phone Busters Elliott.
Never call a 900 number to collect a prize. And never send bank information for the deposit of “winnings.”
Beware too of online games of chance. “Type “lotteries” into a search engine if you want to see how many sweepstakes scams are out on the Internet,” says Gordon Board, corporate security investigator at the В.C. Lottery Corporation. “People buy tickets on their credit cards at these bogus sites, but there is no prize money.”
Never call a 900 number – it’s not a free call – to collect a prize. And never send bank information for the deposit of “winnings” into your account.
Rule No. 1 for avoiding scams online, says Sgt. Cowper: “If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.”
Investment Scams
Shawn Fitzsimmons, an accountant with Phone Busters who specializes in investment fraud, says on-line scams have cost some victims their life savings.
He walks me through an array of glitzy web pages extolling the virtues of tax havens and the tremendous profits to be made from offshore investments in places like the Caribbean, Panama, Latin America and the South Pacific. Rachel Smith, (Name changed to protect privacy) 37, decided to invest $ 1,000 with an on-line investment site called Stock Generation in the spring of 1999. As the year passed, the mother of a 12-year-old watched in delight as her investment grew to $ 18,000. When she decided to cash in last April, her account suddenly showed zero. She called a contact number in the Caribbean three times, only to be put on hold. She was devastated to be told by authorities that her money was likely lost to scam artists.
“It is one of the most lucrative, underreported and cruel crimes on the Internet,” says Fitzsimmons. “Victims sometimes won’t even tell their families, let alone report it to the police.” He estimates authorities see only five percent of on-line investment fraud.
Another way investment scam artists make money is with pump-and-dump schemes, in which scammers hype stocks they are holding by posting phony tips in investment chat rooms, spam e-mails and on-line newsletters. Unsuspecting investors bid up the price, and then the swindler dumps the stock at a profit.
1) Answer the questions:
1. How was Mr. Arkinstall swindled by the online company?
2. Why is cyber fraud growing?
3. What should people do before sending credit-card numbers to an online merchant?
4. What makes the Internet a bonanza for criminals?
5. What’s safe online?
6. What does online auction fraud involve?
7. How was Linda Russell ripped off by Friends from Home?
8. What are travel scams?
9. What was Rachel Smith’s online experience?
10.Why don’t victims want to report online investment fraud?
IX. Reading Analysis.
| VOCABULARY LIST Nouns: freshman, access to, authority, reign, pride, innovation, bogus, endeavor, exhilaration, insights. Verbs: to encompass, to promote. Adjectives: bonafide, awe-inspiring, mere, efficient. |
THE FIRST HACKERS
1. The first “hackers” were students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who belonged to the TMRC (Tech Model Railroad Club). Some of the members really built model trains. But many were more interested in the wires and circuits underneath the track platform. Spending hours at TMRC creating better circuitry was called “a mere hack.” Those members who were interested in creating innovative, stylistic, and technically clever circuits called themselves (with pride) hackers.
2. During the spring of 1959, a new course was offered at MIT, a freshman programming class. Soon the hackers of the railroad club were spending days, hours, and nights hacking away at their computer, an IBM 704. Instead of creating a better circuit, their hack became creating faster, more efficient program – with the least number of lines of code. Eventually they formed a group and created the first set of hacker’s rules, called the Hacker’s Ethic.
3. Steven Levy, in his book Hackers, presented the rules:
· Rule 1: Access to computers – and anything, which might teach you, something about the way the world works – should be unlimited and total.
· Rule 2: All information should be free.
· Rule 3: Mistrust authority – promote decentralization.
· Rule 4: Hackers should be judged by their hacking, not bogus criteria such as degrees, race, or position.
· Rule 5: You can create art and beauty on a computer.
· Rule 6: Computers can change your life for the better.
4. These rules made programming at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory a challenging, all encompassing endeavor. Just for the exhilaration of programming, students in the AI Lab would write a new program to perform even the smallest tasks. The program would be made available to others who would try to perform the same task with fewer instructions. The act of making the computer work more elegantly was, to a bonafide hacker, awe-inspiring.
5. Hackers were given free reign on the computer by two AI Lab professors, “Uncle” John McCarthy and Marvin Minsky, who realized that hacking created new insights. Over the years, the AI Lab created many innovations: LIFE, a game about survival; LISP, a new kind of programming language; the first computer chess game; The CAVE, the first computer adventure; and SPACEWAR, the first video game.
EXERCISES
True or false?
1. Those who can, do. Those who cannot, teach. Those who cannot teach, HACK!
2. The first hackers were interested in railroad circuitry.
3. The first hackers studied at MIT.
4. The point of a hacker’s work was to create a faster and smaller code.
5. Hackers had their own Ethic Code.
6. TMRC stands for Toy Machinery Railroad Car.
7. Hackers sabotaged the work of the AI Lab.
8. An elegant computer was, to a real hacker, awe-inspiring.
9. At AI Lab hackers wrote a computer program for every other task.
10.Hackers were quite prolific in innovations.
11.Hackers were given free reign on the two AI Lab professors.
2) Put the proper words into sentences:
| programming | insights | innovation | endeavor | awe-inspiring |
| exhilaration | ethic | instructions | encompass | mistrust |
| freshmen | bogus | authority |
1. Decentralization results in ______ to the chief.
2. Holding the door for a lady is the question of ______.
3. This still life isn’t Picasso’s; it’s a ______.
4. The report you’ve presented doesn’t ______ some of the problems.
5. If you can survive both in the jungle and the desert, a ___ Indian you are.
6. The _____ in how hardware works is obligatory for a good programmer.
7. Each _____ is another step to a new technological revolution.
8. In 1961 the Soviet Scientists’ _____ to conquer the space was a success.
9. _____ without any reason proves one’s carelessness.
10.Iron grip boss expects you to carry out all his ______.
11.Annually MIT gains over 5000 ________.
12._______ should cause ________ terror in your heart.
X. Read the text.
COMPUTER CRIMES
More and more, the operations of our businesses, governments, and financial institutions are controlled by information that exists only inside computer memories. Anyone clever enough to modify this information for his own purposes can reap substantial rewards. Even worse, a number of people who have done this and been caught at it have managed to get away without punishment.
These facts have not been lost on criminals or would be criminals. A recent Stanford Research Institute study of computer abuse was based on 160 case histories, which probably are just the proverbial tip of the iceberg. After all, we only know about the unsuccessful crimes. How many successful ones have gone undetected is anybody’s guess.
Here are a few areas in which computer criminals have found the pickings all too easy.
Banking. All but the smallest banks now keep their accounts on computer files. Someone who knows how to change the numbers in the files can transfer funds at will. For instance, one programmer was caught having the computer transfer funds from other people’s accounts to his wife’s checking account. Often, traditionally trained auditors don’t know enough about the workings of computers to catch what is taking place right under their noses.
Business. A company that uses computers extensively offers many opportunities to both dishonest employees and clever outsiders. For instance, a thief can have the computer ship the company’s products to addresses of his own choosing. Or he can have it issue checks to him or his confederates for imaginary supplies or services. People have been caught doing both.
Credit Cards. There is a trend toward using cards similar to credit cards to gain access to funds through cash-dispensing terminals.
Yet, in the past, organized crime has used stolen or counterfeit credit cards to finance its operations. Banks that offer after-hours or remote banking through cash-dispensing terminals may find themselves unwillingly subsidizing organized crime.
Theft of Information. Much personal information about individuals is now stored in computer files. An unauthorized person with access to this information could use it for blackmail. Also, confidential information about a company’s products or operations can be stolen and sold to unscrupulous competitors. (One attempt at the latter came to light when the competitor turned out to be scrupulous and turned in the people who were trying to sell him stolen information.)
Software Theft. The software for a computer system is often more expensive than the hardware. Yet this expensive software is all too easy to copy. Crooked computer experts have devised a variety of tricks for getting these expensive programs printed out, punched on cards, recorded on tape, or otherwise delivered into their hands. This crime has even been perpetrated from remote terminals that access the computer over the telephone.
Theft of Time-Sharing Services. When the public is given access to a system, some members of the public often discover how to use the system in unauthorized ways. For example, there are the “phone freakers” who avoid long distance telephone charges by sending over their phones control signals that are identical to those used by the telephone company.
Since time-sharing systems often are accessible to anyone who dials the right (telephone number, they are subject to the same kinds of manipulation.
Of course, most systems use account numbers and passwords to restrict access to authorized users. But unauthorized persons have proved to be adept at obtaining this information and using it for their own benefit. For instance, when a police computer system was demonstrated to a school class, a precocious student noted the access codes being used; later, all the student’s teachers turned up on a list of wanted criminals.
Perfect Crimes. It’s easy for computer crimes to go undetected if no one checks up on what the computer is doing. But even if the crime is detected, the criminal may walk away not only unpunished but with a glowing recommendation from his former employers.
Of course, we have no statistics on crimes that go undetected. But it’s unsettling to note how many of the crimes we do know about were detected by accident, not by systematic audits or other security procedures. The computer criminals who have been caught may have been the victims of uncommonly bad luck.
For example, a certain keypunch operator complained of having to stay overtime to punch extra cards. Investigation revealed that the extra cards she was being asked to punch were for fraudulent transactions. In another case, disgruntled employees of the thief tipped off the company that was being robbed. Ал undercover narcotics agent stumbled on still another case. An employee was selling the company’s merchandise on the side and using the computer to get it shipped to the buyers. While negotiating for LSD, the narcotics agent was offered a good deal on a stereo!
Unlike other embezzlers, who must leave the country, commit suicide, or go to jail, computer criminals sometimes brazen it out, demanding not only that they not be prosecuted but also that they be given good recommendations and perhaps other benefits, such as severance pay. All too often, their demands have been met.
Why? Because company executives are afraid of the bad publicity that would result if the public found out that their computer had been misused. They cringe at the thought of a criminal boasting in open court of how he juggled the most confidential records right under the noses of the company’s executives, accountants, and security staff. And so another computer criminal departs with just the recommendations he needs to continue his exploits elsewhere.
EXERCISES
True or false?
1. A person is innocent until proven guilty.
2. Computer-related crime has diminished.
3. A thief can transfer funds from other people’s accounts.
4. Dishonest employees can’t ship the company’s products to addresses of their choosing.
5. It is impossible to counterfeit credit cards.
6. Phone freaks can be found out.
7. Personal information should not be stored in computer files.
8. A real bank checks very carefully before handling out any money.
9. Unauthorized persons have proved to be inefficient laymen.
10.Hardware is less expensive than software.
11.Computer criminals will never be caught.
12.Companies don’t punish some criminals because they don’t want bad publicity.
2) Give synonyms to:
to come to light; confidential; attempt; crooked; to deliver; to perpetrate crime; freaks; to avoid; to obtain; to reveal; merchandise; transaction; severance pay; publicity; executive.
3) Give antonyms to:
fraudulent; common; to ship; like; to go to jail; to be adept at; to reveal; a precocious student; former; by accident; to complain of.
4) Construct other sentences in these patterns (transitional expressions):
1. After all, we know only about unsuccessful crimes.
2. All but the smallest banks keep their accounts in computer files.
3. Yet, in the past, organized crime used stolen credit cards to finance its operations.
4. Also, confidential information can be stolen.
5. For example, three phone freakers who avoid paying distance telephone charges.
6. Of course, most systems use passwords to restrict access to authorized users.
7. Unlike other embezzlers, computer criminals demand that they be given good recommendations.
XI. Read the text.
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