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VOA慢速英语2021--用语法打击网络犯罪

时间:2021-04-05 23:58:43

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Fight Online Crime with Grammar

We have all seen them: emails with bad grammar, spelling mistakes and other problems. The writers ask us to go to a web page or open a file linked to the email. But if we do, the result is sharing personal or financial information.

Here is the good news. Anyone with some knowledge of grammar can find out that these are not official messages from a bank or an internet service. We will learn how to recognize them in today's Everyday Grammar.

Cybersecurity experts call these email or text messages "phishing."

You might think about it as trying to catch fish, but this word is spelled with "ph" not "f." Hackers2 came up with the word in the 1970s basing it on another cybercrime called "phone phreaking." Phishing describes the method of sending emails into a "sea of internet users" hoping some will "take the bait" or get caught up in an illegal activity.

The Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, an agency of the U.S. government, says there are several things phishing attempts have in common. They look like they are from a company you know or trust, such as a bank, credit card company or online store. They tell a story to get you to take some action. The story may involve activity on your account, a bill you must pay or an offer for a reduced price on something. Then, they ask you to give them personal information, such as your date of birth, your telephone number or credit card details. In addition, they often say something bad will happen if you do not take immediate3 action.

The question is: How can you tell when a request is not an official communication from a trusted company?

Here is where your knowledge of English grammar can help you. You can look for grammar and spelling mistakes by asking these questions:

Do you have an account or normally do business with this company?

Does the message follow or break grammar rules?

Does the message use correct spelling, punctuation4 and spacing?

Does the message follow the rules of language use in business, such as the use of formal language?

The FTC gives an example of a phishing message that is supposed to be from the video service, Netflix.

Your account is on hold

Hi Dear.

We're having some trouble with your current billing information. We'll try again, but in the meantime you may want to update your payment details.

Update Account Now

The first problem is that the message starts with the greeting, "Hi Dear." That is wrong for two reasons. It does not use your name, and it uses both "Hi" and "Dear." The correct use of "dear" in English is before a name, as in "Dear Dr. Robbins." And, an official letter would never use the informal greeting, "Hi."

The Netflix message asks you to update your payment details. This, too, is a warning sign. Experts say you should visit the company's official website if you think there may be a real problem. You should not click on the button to follow the link in the message.

At the end of the message is another mistake. It says, "Visit the Help Centre," spelling "center" with "re," not "er." Netflix is a U.S. company. You would not expect it to use British spelling.

Arnold Zwicky wrote about another phishing email in The Language Log. Here is part of the message.

This message is from One Communications Internet SM message center to all uga.edu account owners.We are currently upgrading our data base and e-mail account center. We are deleting all unused uga.edu account to create more spacefor new accounts.

You are advice to verify and confirm your account details below to enable us upgrade our school uga.edu Internet Service e.g. Your uga.edu

E-mail, Password, and Address etc.

It begins, "This message is from One Communications Internet message center." That is a grammatical mistake, because the definite article "the" should be used, not the noun "one."

Next, we see two words written together, "owners.We..." This spacing mistake appears in another place in the message too. The message says, "We are deleting all unused account..." With "all" before it, the word "account" should have the plural5 form "accounts."

The next sentence has two grammatical mistakes: "You are advice to verify and confirm your account details below to enable us upgrade our school...Internet Service." Did you find the mistakes? "Advice" should be the passive form, "advised" and "to" is needed for the infinitive6 verb form in "enable us to upgrade."

After looking at some phishing messages, you may wonder how anyone could think they are official emails. But most of us do not read our email messages carefully enough.

As a result, people often follow the instructions in a message without thinking of the risks. The risks are serious. The FBI says that people lost $57 million to phishing activity in one year and much more from all forms of cybercrime.

Now that you know what to look for and how to use your knowledge of English grammar, you can avoid becoming the victim of cybercriminals.

Words in This Story

cybersecurity –n. related to providing security against an internet attack

hacker1 – n. a person who secretly gets access to a computer system in order to get information or cause damage; a person who hacks7 into a computer system

cybercrime – n. criminal activities carried out by means of computers or the internet

spelling – n. the act of forming words using the correct letters

bait – n. something used to attract a fish (or anything else) so that they can be caught

punctuation – n. the marks, such as periods and commas, used in writing to make it clearer and to separate sentences and parts of sentences


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1 hacker Irszg9     
n.能盗用或偷改电脑中信息的人,电脑黑客
参考例句:
  • The computer hacker wrote that he was from Russia.这个计算机黑客自称他来自俄罗斯。
  • This site was attacked by a hacker last week.上周这个网站被黑客攻击了。
2 hackers dc5d6e5c0ffd6d1cd249286ced098382     
n.计算机迷( hacker的名词复数 );私自存取或篡改电脑资料者,电脑“黑客”
参考例句:
  • They think of viruses that infect an organization from the outside.They envision hackers breaking into their information vaults. 他们考虑来自外部的感染公司的病毒,他们设想黑客侵入到信息宝库中。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Arranging a meeting with the hackers took weeks againoff-again email exchanges. 通过几星期电子邮件往来安排见面,他们最终同意了。 来自互联网
3 immediate aapxh     
adj.立即的;直接的,最接近的;紧靠的
参考例句:
  • His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
  • We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。
4 punctuation 3Sbxk     
n.标点符号,标点法
参考例句:
  • My son's punctuation is terrible.我儿子的标点符号很糟糕。
  • A piece of writing without any punctuation is difficult to understand.一篇没有任何标点符号的文章是很难懂的。
5 plural c2WzP     
n.复数;复数形式;adj.复数的
参考例句:
  • Most plural nouns in English end in's '.英语的复数名词多以s结尾。
  • Here you should use plural pronoun.这里你应该用复数代词。
6 infinitive EqJz2f     
n.不定词;adj.不定词的
参考例句:
  • The use of the split infinitive is now generally acceptable.分裂不定式的用法现在已被广泛接受。
  • Modal verbs generally take the bare infinitive.情态动词通常用不带to的不定式。
7 hacks 7524d17c38ed0b02a3dc699263d3ce94     
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

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