Hackers - Part- 3.

LESSON 7

Reading 1.

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. An 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.

Task 2. 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.

Task 3. 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.

Task 4. 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.

Task 6. Put the proper words into sentences:

foolproof, complicated, virus, unauthorized, crime, fingerprint, altering, messages.

1. Computer security is more ... today than it was in the past.

2. International literature tells lurid stories about computer viruses… - about bank swindles, espionage, ... sent
from one computer to destroy the contents of others.
3. Movies like War Games have dramatized the dangers from ... entry to the computer systems that control
nuclear weapons.
4. Methods used in computer-based criminal activity range from switching or ... data as they enter the computer,
to pulling self-concealing instruction into the software.
5. The person who develops a ... lock for the computer data will make a fortune
6. .... is the name generally given to software that causes ... of computer files.
7. People must be taught that some kinds of help, such as assisting ... users with passwords are inappropriate.
8. According to a published article, the Mafia has kidnapped an IBM executive and cut off his finger because it
needed his ... to breach a computer security system.
9. Data sent over communication lines can be protected by encryption, the process of scrambling ...
10. Firewall is security measures taken to block ... access to an Internet site.

Topics for Essays, Oral or Written reports

1. A day in a hacker's life.

2. If I were a hacker
3. Hacking for fun or running for life?
4. Do we need hackers?
5. A hacker: good or evil?

Essay Selection for Reading as a Stimulus for Writing

Hackers of Today
Hackers, having started as toy railroad circuitry designers in the late fifties, are completely new people now.
Once turned to computers, they became gods and devils. Nowadays holders and users of the World Wide Web
hide their PCs under passwords when the keyword “hacker” is heard. When and how did this change take
place? Why are we so frightened of Hacker The Mighty and The Elusive?
One of the legends says that hackers have changed under the influence of “crackers” – the people who loved to
talk on the phone at somebody else's expense. Those people hooked up to any number and enjoyed the pleasure
of telephone conversation, leaving the most fun – bills – for the victim. Another legend tells us that modern
hackers were born when a new computer game concept was invented. Rules were very simple: two computer
programs were fighting for the reign on the computer. Memory, disk-space and CPU time were the battlefield.
The results of that game are two in number and are well known: hackers and computer viruses. One more story
tells that the “new” hackers came to existence when two MIT students that attended the AI Lab found an error
in a network program. They let people, responsible for the network, know but with no result. The offended
wrote a code that completely paralyzed the network and only after that the error was fixed. By the way, those
students founded The Motorola Company later.
Today, when the Internet has entered everyone’s house there’s no shield between a hacker and your PC. You
can password yourself up, but then either hackers will crack your PC anyway or nobody will enter your site,
because passwords kill accessibility. If your PC is easy to access no one can guarantee what’ll happen to your
computer – hackers, you know them.
Monsters? Chimeras? Not at all! Every hacker is a human being and has soft spots: good food, pretty girls or
boys (it happens both ways), classical music, hot chocolate at the fireplace, apple pie on Sunday. Hacker is first
of all a connoisseur, a professional with no computer secret out of his experience. And what is the application
for skills depends on him, God, and Holy Spirit.