Ex.1 Read the dialogue between Steve, a computer technician and Richard, the office manage at a language institute, talking about computer security.

 

Richard:	Hi Steve? Are you busy?
Steve:	No, not really.
Richard:	Good if you’ve got a minute. I’d like to talk to you about computer security. I saw a program on TV the other evening about computer hackers. It made me realize that our network system isn’t very secure. We have a lot of sensitive information in our data bank, and I think perhaps we should install some kind of system to protect it.
Steve:	That’s a good point. Theoretically, anyone could call in and connect their personal computers at home to the office network. All they’d need is a modem.
Richard:	Exactly. There’s nothing to stop students calling in and changing their grades, for example. They could even change their records to show that they’d paid for a course when they hadn’t.
Steve:	Hmm. What we need is a password.
Richard:	Yes, but the problem with password is what people do with them. Some put them on scraps of paper on their computer terminals. Others use their own names, or a partner’s name. That just makes life easily for a hacker.
Steve:	True. But it’s not just what people do with them. The whole idea of using real words is risky. There are programs now that will try every word in the dictionary. If you want to make life difficult for the hackers, it’s much safe to use a random mixture of numbers and letter.
Richard:	Suppose so. But isn’t it possible to buy a security system?
Steve:	Of course. It depends how much you want to spend. You can even buy a system that changes the password every single minute
Richard:	Every minute? Then how do the authorized users know what the password is?
Steve:	They carry a smart card that shows a constantly changing number. The number is the password
Richard:	Very clever!
Steve:	Yes, as long as you don’t leave your card lying around.

 

Ex.2 Answer the following questions.

1. What is the problem with the computer system at the language institute?

2. What would someone need to connect his/her PC to the office network?

3. What are the disadvantages of security passwords, according to Steve and Richard?

4. How does the ‘smart’ card work? Is it safe?

5. How much do you think Steve and Richard know about security system?

 

Ex. 3 Learn this dialogue by heart.

 

 

Unit 6

Topic: Viruses

I Reading skills

Read and remember the following words and word combinations used in their specialized meanings.

a set	- набір
virus	- вірус
vaccine	- вакцина
contagious	- інфекційний, заразний
occurrence	- випадок, подія, пригода
file infector	- файловий вірус
to replicate	- тиражувати, імітувати
to trigger	- приводити у дію, запускати
covert	- прихований, завуальований; таємний
destructive	- руйнівний, знищувальний, згубний, шкідливий
illicit	- заборонений, нелегітимний
legitimate program	- легітимна програма
to come in contact with	- стикатися з
to be aware of	- усвідомлювати

 

Read and translate the following text into Ukrainian

How computer viruses work

On March 6, 1991, personal computer users all over the world turned on their machines in fear and trepidation. In most cases, nothing unusual happened; the computers started up just fine. But in some cases, a message flashed on the screen and the computer began to erase all files and data stored on the hard disk. What had happened? A virus called Michelangelo had somehow spread throughout the personal computer community around the world.

The terms viruses and vaccines have entered the jargon of the computer industry to describe some of the bad things that can happen to computer systems and programs.

A virus, as its name suggests, is contagious. It is a set of illicit instructions that passes itself on the other programs with which it comes in contact. It has two parts, which could be called the infector and the detonator. They have two very different jobs. One of the features of the computer virus that separates it from other kinds of computer program is that it replicates itself, so that it can be spread (via flash cards transported from computer to computer, or networks) to other computes. After the infector has copied the virus elsewhere, the detonator performs the virus’s main work.

In this case, the Michelangelo virus was spread on IBM and IBM-compatible personal computer by unsuspected users who shared diskettes that carried the virus instructions. Michelangelo was first spotted in Europe in Mach 1990. It was named after the famous artist born on March 6, 1475.Within a year it had spread to the United States and the rest of the world.

Whoever created this virus was never caught. But one thing became evident: a virus can strike at any time because few computer systems are totally secure.

Unpleasant occurrences like the March 6, 1991, attack of the Michelangelo virus will be with us for years to come. In fact, from now, you need to check your IBM or IBM-compatible personal computer for the presence of Michelangelo before March 6 every year – or risk losing all the data on your hard disk when you turn on you machine that day. And Macintosh uses need to do the same for another intruder, the Jerusalem virus, before each Friday the 13^th, or the risk a similar fate for their data.

Some types of viruses include the worm, a program that spreads by replicating itself. The bomb, a program intended to sabotage a computer by trigging damage based on certain conditions – usually at a later date. And the Trojan horse, a program that covertly places illegal, destructive instructions in the middle of the otherwise legitimate program.

Don’t worry too much about viruses. You may never see one. There are just a few ways to become infected that you should be aware of. The sources seem to be service people, pirated games, putting disks in publicly available PCs with put write-protect tabs, commercial software (rarely) and software distributed over computer bulletin board systems. Many viruses have spread through pirates – illegally copied or broken – games. This is easy to avoid.

If you use a shared PC or a PC that has public access, such as one in a college lab or a library, be very careful about putting disks into PC’s drives without a write-protect tab. Carry a virus-checking program and scan the PC before letting it write data onto disks.

There are actually two kinds of antivirus programs: virus shield, which defect viruses as they are infecting your PC, and virus scanners, which detect viruses once they’re infected you.