VOA标准英语2014--NSA Spies on People With Internet and Fake Rocks 美国国家安全局入侵民众电脑获取情报

 

NSA Spies on People With Internet and Fake Rocks 美国国家安全局入侵民众电脑获取情报

As President Barack Obama prepares to unveil reforms to the U.S. National Security Agency's intelligence gathering¹ programs, there is renewed attention on how the NSA actually hacks³ into computers. 

Some of the NSA's techniques were described in a New York Times article Wednesday, detailing how the agency implanted malicious⁴ software in nearly 100,000 computers worldwide.  

According to the article, the agency made use of a secret technology that enables it to enter and alter data in computers even if they are not connected to the Internet.

These techniques are far different than the way the NSA used to gather information, says James Andrew Lewis a cyber security expert in Washington

“The NSA had a problem about 15 years ago: the way they collected intelligence changed almost overnight. It went from being a microwave, long distance phone calls and very old, telecom-based approach…to the Internet," said Lewis.

The Internet, he says, has never been secure.  

“There are some programs that take advantage of the fact that the Internet is not secured and may not be secured in our lifetimes.  So a lot of places, including the U.S., have decided⁵ the way to make yourself secure is not to connect your most vital networks, your most vital processes," he said.

Lewis says the NSA has developed such complex tecniques to hack² into targets that are off the grid⁶, they sound like they were ripped from the pages of a science-fiction novel.

“ When you type on a keyboard, it emits a little electronic signal; very faint. It’s possible to collect that signal. We do it, the Russians do it. Lots of countries can do this. One of the things that is surprising is that you don’t have to be that close. I know, for example, in the Russian case, they at one point were collecting the radiation of the keyboard off of the windows of the American embassy," he said.

“A lot of people are familiar with the fake rock they keep their house-key in. For decades, intelligence agencies have been using fake rocks. Suppose you could build a really sensitive receptor, it would be about this big, suppose you put it in a fake rock, and you threw it in front of, say, an Iranian nuclear weapons facility that was not connected to the Internet. Guess what! You’re in.”

This spy game, Lewis says, has been going on for more than a hundred years - and it’s not just the United States doing it.

“One of the solutions people came up with when they found out they were being listened to was to encrypt their messages," he said. "Then you get into a race: can I break the encryption? Can I make the encryption stronger? This has been going on for a century.This is just too important for nations - not just the U.S. - it’s too important for any major power to say, 'I will give up on signals intelligence.'"

 

As the technology gets more and more advanced, Lewis says he does not expect the spy game to stop.

1 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

2 hack   

n.劈，砍，出租马车；v.劈，砍，干咳

参考例句：

• He made a hack at the log.他朝圆木上砍了一下。
• Early settlers had to hack out a clearing in the forest where they could grow crops.早期移民不得不在森林里劈出空地种庄稼。

3 hacks   

黑客

参考例句：

• But there are hacks who take advantage of people like Teddy. 但有些无赖会占类似泰迪的人的便宜。 来自电影对白
• I want those two hacks back here, right now. 我要那两个雇工回到这儿，现在就回。 来自互联网

4 malicious   

adj.有恶意的，心怀恶意的

参考例句：

• You ought to kick back at such malicious slander. 你应当反击这种恶毒的污蔑。
• Their talk was slightly malicious.他们的谈话有点儿心怀不轨。

5 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

6 grid   

n.高压输电线路网；地图坐标方格；格栅

参考例句：

• In this application,the carrier is used to encapsulate the grid.在这种情况下，要用载体把格栅密封起来。
• Modern gauges consist of metal foil in the form of a grid.现代应变仪则由网格形式的金属片组成。