2. H.D. Moore: a hacker who left a mark on 2006

H.D. Moore has always been a household name and a bit of a rock star in hacker circles. As a vulnerability researcher and exploit writer, he built the Metasploit Framework into a must-use penetration testing tool. In 2006, Moore reloaded the open-source attack tool with new tricks to automate exploitation through scripting, simplify the process of writing an exploit, and increase the re-use of code between exploits.

Moore's public research also included the MoBB (Month of Browser Bugs) project that exposed security flaws in the world's most widely used Web browsers; a malware search engine that used Google search queries to find live malware samples; the MoKB (Month of Kernel Bugs) initiative that uncovered serious kernel-level flaws; and the discovery of Wi-Fi driver bugs that could cause code execution attacks.

Love him or hate him hackers marvel at his skills while software vendors decry his stance on vulnerability disclosure - Moore's work nudged the security discussion to the mainstream media and confirmed that vulnerability research will remain alive in 2007.

3. Internet police call for firmer crackdown on cyber hackers

Vietnamese domestic internet police have called for tougher punishment of hackers who attack local networks, as an increasing number of computer viruses and attacks are seriously threatening the security of Vietnam’s online community. Several IT groups in Vietnam ranked the rise of local viruses and hacking as one of the top 10 information technology problems last years. And yet current law penalizes violators through fines only.

Many commercial websites and government websites were hacked, but many hackers discovered were only given light fines, according to the Ministry of Public Security. Nguyen the Dong, director of network Security Company Athena said that about 25 per cent of Vietnamese websites is vulnerable to hacker attacks.

Vietnam is increasing co-operation with international network security organizations to restrict and control attacks from outside the country. The Ministry of Public Security has asked the Government to amend the law by increasing the penalties, including prison sentences for violators.

Comprehension check:

1. Which word combinations from exercise 2 did you find in your article?

2. Did you find the answers to your questions?

3. Find people who read different stories from you. Tell them about what you read.

It is interesting to know

Amusing chronology.

In the history of mankind the XX century was the era of global changes and contradictions. It was full of both marvelous and dreadful events: the invention of the automobile, two World Wars, golden age of cinema, racial discrimination, business boom, rapidly developing fashion trends, outbreaks of unknown lethal diseases, exploration of the outer space and thousands of ingenious inventions.

It was in the XX century when a computer age ushered in. We got accustomed to using cell phones and computers, surfing the net and chatting with the people from the other parts of the world through Instant Messaging. Nowadays such things as wireless technologies, laptops and PDAs, computer viruses and hacker attacks can hardly surprise us. Let’s look back at the past and see how this all started.

1947		William Shockley invents the transistor.
1964		Thomas Kurtz and John Kemeny create BASIC
1968		Intel is founded.
1969	 	ARPANET, the forerunner of the Internet, is created. MIT becomes home to the first computer hackers.
1971	 	The first email program is released for the Arpanet. The author is Ray Tomlinson, who decides to use the '@' character to separate the user name from the domain address. John Draper, hacks phone systems using a toy whistle from a cereal box.
1975		Bill Gates and Paul Allen found Microsoft.
1983	  	The Internet is founded by splitting the Arpanet into separate military and civilian networks. Microsoft Word is first released Kevin Poulsen is arrested for breaking into the Arpanet
1984	 	The first Apple Macintosh goes on sale Fred Cohen develops the first PC viruses and comes up with the now-standard term 'computer virus'.
1985		The first Internet domain name “Symbolics.com” is registered
1988	 	The CD-ROM is invented. Morris worm is launched, infects several thousand systems and clogs computers around the country due to a programming error.
1991	 	PGP (Pretty Good Privacy), a powerful, free encryption tool is released by Philip Zimmerman. The software quickly becomes the most popular encryption package in the world. Rumors circulate about the “Michelangelo” virus, expected to crash computers on March 1992, the artist’s 517th birthday.
1993		Microsoft releases Windows NT.
1994		Vladimir Levin, a Russian mathematician, hacks into Citibank and steals $10 million.
1995	  	Sun launches Java, a computer programming language. Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) released. Chris Lamprecht, aka 'Minor Threat', is the first person to be ever banned from the Internet.
1996		ICQ, the first IM, is released.
1997	 	The domain Google was registered DVD format specifications published.
1998		CIH virus (also known as Chernobyl or Spacefiller) released. CIH was the first virus to include a payload which wipes the FLASH BIOS memory.
1999		Melissa virus is released.
2000	  	Microsoft releases Windows NT A Canadian teenage hacker known as 'Mafiaboy' conducts a DoS attack and renders Yahoo, eBay, Amazon.com, CNN and a few other web sites inaccessible. Microsoft Corporation admits its computer network was breached and the code for several upcoming versions of Windows was stolen.
2001	 	Microsoft releases Windows XP. CodeRed worm is released. It spreads quickly around the world, infecting a hundred thousand computers in a matter of hours.
2004		IBM presents a supercomputer which is the fastest machine in the world. Its sustained speed is 36 trillion operations per second.
2006	 	Microsoft and Novell announce a collaboration on technologies for inter-operation between Windows and SUSE Linux operating systems The worm Nyxem (also known as Kama Sutra, Black Worm, Mywife, Blackname) is discovered. The worm spreads through e-mail client address books and searches for documents and fills them with garbage, instead of deleting them to confuse the user.
2007		Microsoft releases Windows Vista, newest NT-based operating system and successor to XP

Comprehension:

1. When was the Internet created?

2. What was the first Internet domain name?

3. When did the first computer virus appear and who was its author?

4. When were Intel and Microsoft founded?

5. What Russian hacker is mentioned above?

6. What company released the fastest computer in the world?

7. What do you think what are the recent tendencies in the computing sphere? Has the number of computer-related crimes increased over the past years?

8. What events do you find the most significant in the computer-related history? Try to remember what historical events political, economic, and social or others occurred the same year. Did you know that in

1947 – The International Monetary Fund begins to operate

1968 – The Boeing 747 makes its maiden flight

1969 – Michael Schumacher, German race car driver is born.

1971 – Walt Disney World opens in Florida

1983 – Metallica releases their debut album “Kill ‘Em All”

1984 – The Terminator, science fiction film, is released

1985 – The first British mobile phone call is made by Ernie Wise to Vodafone (Voice data fone)

1995 – The Schengen treaty comes into force.

1999 – The Euro currency is introduced

2007 – Comet McNaught, the brightest comet to appear in over forty years, becomes visible over the Southern Hemisphere?