Vocabulary

1. 1.explosive – взрывчатый, подобный взрыву

2. misuse – злоупотребление

3. trespass – нарушение (чужого) права владения

4. larseny – хищение имущества

5. venture – фирма

6. conviction – обвинительный приговор

7. unauthorized – неуполномоченный, неразрешенный

8. adverse – здесь:нежелательный

9. disgruntled – недовольный, рассерженный

10. address the problem – заняться проблемой

11. to outlaw – объявить вне закона

12. misappropriation – незаконное завладение

13. dissemination – распространение

14. privacy – тайна, секретность, уединенность

15. to succumb – уступать

16. to crack – вскрыть, нарушить

17. encryption – кодирование

18. cuberthief – кивервор

19. to snatch – хватать, глотать

20. code-cracking – вскрытие кода

21. surveillance – слежка, наблюдение

22. flaw – здесь: уязвимое, слабое место

23. to keep from – удерживать(ся) от …

24. crook – разг: жулик, плут

25. to clone – клонировать, множить

26. to eavesdrop - подслушивать

Task 1. Read and translate the text.

Computer Crimes

The explosive growth in the use of computers in the business world in the past few years has brought with it a corresponding increase in computer misuse.

Traditional (precomputer) state and federal laws applicable to such crimes as trespass and larceny are not necessarily appropriate for prosecution of cases of computer fraud and computer theft. For example, one court held that a city employee’s use of the city’s computer facilities in his private sales venture could not support a theft conviction absent’ any evidence that the city deprived of any part of value or use of the computer. In some cases, use of a computer has not been deemed “property” within traditional theft statutes.

Computer crimes fall mainly into three broad categories: simple unauthorized access, theft of information, and theft of funds. Among schemes that have been subjects of litigation are stealing a competitor’s computer program; paying an accomplice to delete adverse information and insert favorable false information into the defendant’s credit file; a bank’s president having his account computer coded so that his checks would be removed and held rather than posted so he could later remove the actual checks without their being debited, and a disgruntled exemployee’s inserting a “virus” into his former employer’s computer to destroy its records.

Some estimate that losses due to computer misuse may be as high as $35 to $40 billion per year (including thefts of funds, losses of computer programs and data, losses of trade secrets, and damage done to computer hardware). These estimates may not be reliable, but it is clear that a substantial amount of computer crime is never discovered and a high percentage of that which is discovered is never reported because companies do not want publicity about the inadequacy of their computer controls and financial institutions, such as banks, fear that reports of large losses of funds, even when insured, are likely to cause depositors to withdraw their funds in the interest of safety. Whatever the actual loss due to computer misuse, both Congress and the state legislatures have passed statutes to deal specifically with computer crime.

At least 45 states have passed laws dealing with computer crime. Most of the statutes comprehensively address the problem, outlawing computer trespass (unauthorized access); damage to computer or software (e.g. use of ‘viruses’); theft or misappropriation of computer services, and unauthorized obtaining or disseminating of information via computer. There have been relatively few prosecutions under these state laws or the federal acts, leading some experts to suggest that the problem of computer crime has been overestimated.

Task 2. Answer the following questions.

1. What has the explosive growth in the use of computers in business brought with it?

2. Why wasn’t the employee who used the city computer facilities for his private ales convicted of theft?

3. What are the three broad categories all computer crimes fall into?

4. What do losses due to the computer misuse include?

5. Why many computer crimes are never discovered or reported?

6. How many US states have passed laws dealing with computer crimes?

7. What is outlawed as far as computers are concerned?

Task 3. Read and translate the text.

Privacy and More at Risk.

The security of personal communications appears again to have succumbed to government’s desire to listen in on them. This week two University of California graduate students, using a laptop computer, reported cracking digital cell-phone codes thought to be impossible to break. Such encryption is what has kept cyberthieves from “snatching” digital cell-phone codes from the airwaves and using them or selling them to others for illegal calls. Such theft from old-style analog cell phones has cost phone companies and, by extension, their customers-millions of dollars.

But in breaching digital phones’ protection, the computer researchers didn’t merely reveal potential dangers to cell-phone users. They exposed a threat by government to a safe, prosperous digital electronic future for everyone. The researchers say their cellular code cracking was made easier because the code itself had been weakened possibly to allow for government surveillance. That may or may not be true. No coding expert though could think of any other good reason for the phone codes now. Federal law enforcement and security agencies have tried repeatedly to keep not only phone companies but also U.S., software makers and computer manufacturers from providing the best code protection available for everything from computer records to bank accounts – unless they provide government technological means to secretly get around it. Those agencies now are pushing Congress to pass laws that would require such decoding technology for any encrypted information. They say it’s needed so they protect the nation from terrorists and drug dealers.

But a National Research Council study in 1996 and European Commission report this year found that crooks and terrorists can get around any country’s cryptography restrictions, with software available on “the Internet. And there are thousands of encryption products sold over the counter worldwide. Indeed as the cloning of the cell-phone codes shows, those most threatened by government’s obsession with maintaining its eavesdropping capability are legitimate businesses and their customers.

If government would only get out of their way, they’d have a better chance of protecting themselves.

Task 4. Answer the following questions:

1. What is the government’s desire?

2. Why is security of personal communication succumbing to the government?

3. What did the graduate students of the University of California do?

4. What kept cyberthieves from snatching digital cell-phone codes?

5. How much did such theft from old-style analog cell phone cost phone customers?

6. What does breaching digital phone’s protection mean for cell phone – users?

7. What way the researcher’s cellular code-cracking made easier?

8. What do coding experts think about the phone code’s flaw?

9. What organizations were kept from providing the best code protection available for everybody?

10. Who tried to persuade them doing so?

11. What are these agencies pushing Congress to do?

12. How do they explain it?

13. What does cloning of the cell-phone codes show?

14. What is meant by the “government’s obsession”?

Task 5. Topics for discussion.

1. Attempts of the government to have decoding technology for any encrypted information?

2. Privacy at risk.

Unit 12.