Файл: Данное учебнометодическое пособие предназначено для учащихся вторых курсов, специализирующихся в области информационных систем и технологий.docx

Part 4. Security
Pre-reading questions:

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  What is a computer virus?
  
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  How can a computer virus spread?
  
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  How can we protect our computes from infecting?
  
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  What attacks have you heard about?
  
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  Have you ever had a virus or worm in your mail?
  
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  Name a few of the most famous viruses.
  

Computer viruses can be a nightmare as can wipe out the information on a hard drive, turn an innocent machine into a zombie and replicate and send themselves to other computers. If you've never had a machine fall victim to a computer virus, you may wonder what the fuss is about. But the concern is understandable - according to Consumer Reports, computer viruses helped contribute to $8.5 billion in consumer losses in 2008. Computer viruses are just one kind of online threat, but they're arguably the best known of the bunch.

A computer virus is a computer program that can replicate itself and spread from one computer to another. The term "virus" is also commonly, used to refer to other types of malware, including adware and spyware programs.

Malware includes computer viruses, computer worms, Trojan horses, most rootkits, spyware, dishonest adware and other malicious or unwanted software. The worm, first discovered in Hong Kong, arrived in e-mail boxes on May 4, 2000, with the simple subject of “ILOVEYOU” and an attachment “LOVE-LETTER FORYOU.TXT.vbs”.

Viruses are sometimes confused with worms and Trojan horses, which are technically different. A worm can exploit security vulnerability to spread itself automatically to other computers through networks, while a Trojan horse is a program that appears harmless but hides malicious functions. Some Trojan horses might damage a victim's hard drive. Others can create a backdoor, allowing a remote user to access the victim's computer system. Worms and Trojan horses, like viruses, may harm a computer system's data or performance. Some viruses and other malware have symptoms noticeable to the computer user, but many are surreptitious or simply do nothing to call attention to themselves. Some viruses do nothing beyond reproducing themselves. Any virus will by definition make unauthorized changes to a computer, which is undesirable even if no damage is done or intended.

In the good old days (i.e., the early 1980s), viruses depended on humans to do the hard work of spreading the virus to other computers. A hacker would save the virus to disks and then distribute the disks to other people. It wasn't until modems became common that virus transmission became a real problem. Today when we think of a computer virus, we usually imagine something that transmits itself via the Internet. It might infect computers through e-mail messages or corrupted Web links. Programs like these can spread much faster than the earliest computer viruses.
Exercise 1. Answer the following questions

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  What is the difference between viruses in general and Trojan horses and worms?
  
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  How did they distribute viruses in the past?
  
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  How does a computer virus affect a computer?
  
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  How can viruses damage information on a hard drive?
  
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  Do you know why Trojan horses have such a poetical name?
  
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  How to avoid infecting your computer with a virus?
  

Exercise 2. Match column A with column B

1. Malware:	A program that shows you advertisements (sometimes lots and lots of advertisements) while you are using the net. Many people think a website is showing all the advertisements, when it is the adware infecting their computer.
2. Worm:	Any program which is designed to harm your computer or its security.
3. Trojan:	Malware which spreads from computer to computer in a network, often without the user doing anything, or even being logged in.
4. Adware:	A program which gets into your computer by hiding itself in another, innocent piece of software.
5. Black hat:	Email viruses do not want to be traced back to the machine that they came from, so they pretend to be sent from another computer.
6. Signature:	A programmer who uses his skills to damage the internet.
7. Spoofing:	A piece of code that an anti-virus program can use to identify a virus.

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Exercise 3. Fill in the blanks with the words from the box.

Trojan horses infecting email viruses download software (X2)

8. 
   1. A computer virus is a relatively small _________ program that is attached to another larger program for the purpose of gaining access to information or to corrupt information within a computer system.
   
9. 
   2. _______ have many purposes - some are designed to play annoying tricks, whereas others have destructive intent.
   
10. 
    3. Pirated or copied _________ is always a risk for a virus.
    
11. 
    4. Programs sent by ________ should always be suspicious.
    
12. 
    5. To prevent a virus you should purchase or ___________ a anti-virus program.
    
13. 
    6. Named after the wooden horse from Greek mythology, ________ ________ are non-replicating programs that appear to be benign but actually have a hidden malicious purpose.
    
14. 
    7. To avoid ___________ your computer with a virus Do Not open suspicious emails or email attachments.
    
15. 
    
    

Exercise 4. Translate into Russian.
How Can I Protect My Computer from a Virus?
It is far better to avoid computer viruses and take proactive measures to protect your computer system than it is to clean up after them once they have gotten into your computer and caused damage. The following tips will help protect from a computer virus:

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  Download programs only from trusted, reputable websites
  
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  Install a quality Internet firewall
  
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  Do Not open suspicious emails or email attachments
  
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  MOST IMPORTANTLY — Make sure you have a trusted anti-virus program installed on your computer - such as Norton Anti-virus, NOD32 Anti-virus, Kaspersky Anti-virus.
  

You cannot get a virus from:

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  opening an e-mail message. However, you can get a virus from opening a file attached to an e-mail message.
  
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  reading a Web page. You can get a virus only by downloading and running a program, usually your Web browser will warn you when you begin to download a program from the Web.
  
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  downloading a file. Downloading a file will not infect your computer with a virus.
  

However, installing or opening an infected document or a software program will infect your computer.
If you think you might have a virus, ask yourself these questions:

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  Are my software programs taking longer to load than they used to?
  
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  Are my software programs crashing for no apparent reason?
  
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  Is my computer checking my hard drive often?
  
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  Are my files disappearing for no apparent reason?
  
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  Am I experiencing frequent file corruption?
  
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  Are items that used to work no longer working (providing you haven't made any changes to your system)?
  
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  Have you recently used any floppy disks that were in someone else's computer?
  
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  Have you recently downloaded and executed any computer programs or games from the Internet?
  
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  Have you received e-mail from an unfamiliar source?
  
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  Have you received e-mail with an attachment?
  

Exercise 5. Topics for discussion.
1. Different terms used for “virus”.

2. The problem of computer viruses.

3. Means of avoiding catching a virus.

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Hacking a computer

Prereading discussion.

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  What is the Russian for hacker?
  
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  Are hackers good or bad?
  
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  What examples of computer abuse do you know?
  
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  What are the reasons for computer crimes?
  
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  How easy do you think it is to infiltrate the Internet and steal sensitive information?
  
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  How can you protect your computer from viruses and spyware?
  
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  How could you hack into a system?
  
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  How could you stop people hacking into a system?
  

Crackers transform computers into zombies by using small - programs that exploit weaknesses in a computer's operating system (OS). You might think that these crackers are cutting-edge Internet criminal masterminds, but in truth, many have little to no programming experience or knowledge. Sometimes people call these crackers "script kiddies" because they are young and show no proficiency in writing script or code.

Investigators who monitor botnets say that the programs these crackers use are primitive and poorly programmed. Despite the ham-handed approach, these programs do what the crackers intended them to do - convert computers into zombies.

In order to infect a computer, the cracker must first get the installation program to the victim. Crackers can do this through e-mail or even on a regular Web site. Most of the time, crackers disguise the malicious program with a name and file extension so that the victim thinks he's getting something entirely different.

As users become savvier about Internet attacks, crackers find new ways to deliver their programs. Have you ever seen a pop-up ad that included a "No Thanks" button? Hopefully you didn't click on it -- those buttons are often just decoys. Instead of dismissing the annoying pop-up ad, they activate a download of malicious software.

Once the victim receives the program, he has to activate it. In most cases, the user thinks the program is something else. It might appear to be a picture file, an MPEG or some other recognizable file format. When the user chooses to run the program, nothing seems to happen. For some people, this raises alarm bells and they immediately activate their virus and spyware scanner. Unfortunately, some users simply think they received a bad file and leave it at that.

Meanwhile, the activated program attaches itself to an element of the user's operating system so that every time the user turns on his computer, the program becomes active.

The program either contains specific instructions to carry out a task at a particular time, or it allows the cracker to directly control the user's Internet activity. Many of these programs work over an Internet Relay Chat (IRC), and in fact there are botnet communities on IRC networks where fellow crackers can help one another out -- or attempt to steal another cracker's botnet.
Exercise 1. Answer the questions

1. 
   What do people do to convert computers into zombie?
   
2. 
   Which level of programming experience do crackers show?
   
3. 
   How do you understand ham-handed approach?
   
4. 
   Why do hackers use IRC?
   
5. 
   How can people avoid getting hacked by crackers?
   

Exercise 2. Fill in the gaps

e-mail from be networked zombie computers would hacking (X2)

1. 
   Spam continues to ___a huge problem.
   
2. 
   It's a frustrating experience to open your _________ and sort through dozens of examples of junk mail.
   
3. 
   Where does all that spam come____?
   
4. 
   According to FBI estimates, a large percentage of it comes from ___________________.
   
5. 
   If spam came from one centralized source, it ____be relatively easy to track it down.
   
6. 
   _________ means finding out weaknesses in a computer or computer network.
   
7. 
   Computer __________ is most common among teenagers and young adults, although there are many older hackers as well.
   

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Exercise 3. Do written translation of the following text.
Some people think the term "zombie computer" is misleading. A zombie computer can still behave normally, and every action it takes is a result of a cracker's instructions (though these instructions might be automated). For this reason, these people prefer the term "bot". Bot comes from the word "robot," which in this sense is a device that carries out specific instructions. A collection of networked bots is called a "botnet," and a group of zombie computers is called an "army."
Exercise 4. Give the definition for the following words.
A hacker, a bonnet, a malicious program, a zombie computer, a spyware scanner, an e-mail, a computer virus.


Exercise 5. Find synonyms for the following words in the text.
Hacker (n), electronic brain (n), control (v), transform (v), setup program (n), electronic document delivery (n), badware (n), upload (n), carry out a program (v).
Exercise 6. Make a sentence using as much words above as you can.

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Antiviruses

Antivirus software, originally designed to detect and remove viruses from computers, can also protect against a wide variety of threats, including other types of malicious software, such as keyloggers, browser hijackers, Trojan horses, worms, rootkits, spyware, adware, botnets and ransomware. Antivirus software typically runs as a background process, scanning computers, servers or mobile devices to detect and restrict the spread of malware. Many antivirus software programs include real-time threat detection and protection to guard against potential vulnerabilities as they happen, as well as system scans that monitor device and system files looking for possible risks.

Antivirus software usually performs these basic functions:

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  Scanning directories or specific files for known malicious patterns indicating the presence of malicious software;
  
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  Allowing users to schedule scans so they run automatically;
  
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  Allowing users to initiate new scans at any time; and
  
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  Removing any malicious software it detects.
  

In order to scan systems comprehensively, antivirus software must generally be given privileged access to the entire system. This makes antivirus software itself a common target for attackers, and researchers have discovered remote code execution and other serious vulnerabilities in antivirus software products in recent years.

Antivirus software is distributed in a number of forms, including stand-alone antivirus scanners and internet security suites that offer antivirus protection, along with firewalls, privacy controls and other security protections. While some operating systems are targeted more frequently by virus developers, antivirus software is available for most OSes.
Task 1.

1. 
   Write down a list of key words to the text.
   
2. 
   Using the words, give the main idea of the text.
   
3. 
   Give examples of the most popular antivirus programs. Which of them do you use personally? What are their advantages and disadvantages?
   

Task 2. Translate the text in writing.
MacOS antivirus software. Although MacOS viruses exist, they're less common than Windows viruses, so antivirus products for MacOS are less standardized than those for Windows. There are a number of free and paid products available, providing on-demand tools to protect against potential malware threats through full-system malware scans and the ability to sift through specific email threads, attachments and various web activities.

Android antivirus software. Android is the world's most popular mobile operating system and is installed on more mobile devices than any other OS. Because most mobile malware targets Android, experts recommend all Android device users install antivirus software on their devices. Vendors offer a variety of basic free and paid premium versions of their Android antivirus software including anti-theft and remote-locating features. Some run automatic scans and actively try to stop malicious web pages and files from being opened or downloaded.

Part 5. Surfing the net
Messengers
A messenger service can come in two forms: a service which allows transfer of important information or a client that enables people to have conversations. Messenger services are widely used across the world for a variety of purposes. 

IMs serve for the exchange of information or media content in real-time via the application. Suchlike applications often allow adding friends, so that the contact list is always ready at hand. IMs differ from more traditional e-mails in that the former has a higher transmission speed (it is no coincidence there are called “instant”), in addition to the simplified possibility for a quick and efficient reply, and even the option of viewing the status of the sent message: read or not. Nowadays group chats are becoming more and more popular because of the vast amount of users you can promptly reach. So, it is no wonder they are used so widely in the corporate environment, largely replacing e-mail mailings and phone calls.  Many pioneers of the instant message exchange culture made it possible to send exclusively text messages, but, as time progressed, new IMs presented their loyal users with the voice messaging function, the opportunity to send media files and video chats.

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