本文推薦的考研英語泛讀文章是關于網絡安全問題。In the nascent “internet of things”, security is the last thing on people’s minds.當今網絡世界確實存在諸多不安全因素,到底該如何應對?通讀這篇文章,讓我們來一探究竟。
Now, worries about cyber-security remain mostly theoretical. But again, the warning lights are flashing. In 2014 researchers at the Sans Institute, a firm that offers computer-security training, said they had discovered a botnet of digital video recorders (DVRs). The sabotaged machines spent their time crunching through the complicated calculations needed to mine bitcoins, a virtual currency, for the botnet’s controllers. 目前,對網絡安全問題的擔憂大多數仍是理論上的推測。但是,警鐘卻再一次敲響。2014年,電腦安全培訓公司洛杉磯研究會的調查員們表示,他們發現一種數字視頻錄像機(DVR)的僵尸網絡。機器感染后,將破譯比特幣的復雜算法,為這張僵尸網絡的幕后操控者竊取此虛擬貨幣。
Fortunately, big computer firms do. Two decades of bitter experience mean much more attention is paid to security by the likes of Microsoft and Google. But getting non-computer companies to follow suit will mean a change in corporate culture. 好在大型公司已有經驗。二十多年的慘痛經歷讓谷歌、微軟等公司更加關注網絡安全。但是,要讓非計算機公司跟隨大流,關注網絡安全,卻意味著要改變公司文化。
Computer firms have learned that writing secure code is almost impossible and that openness is the best defence. Other companies, though, are still defensive. In 2013, for instance, Volkswagen appealed to an English court to block publication of work by Flavio Garcia, a researcher at Birmingham University who had uncovered a serious problem with the remote key fobs that lock VW’s cars. The computer industry has long-since learned that such “white-hat” hackers are its friends. 計算機公司已然意識,編寫安全代碼幾乎不可能,只有公開才是最好的防御。然而,其他公司卻仍防御重重,諱莫如深。例如,2013年,大眾汽車公司就向一家英國法院上訴,要求該法院禁止伯明翰大學研究員弗拉維奧•蓋西亞(Flavio Garcia)的宣傳活動,因為他指出大眾汽車的遙控鑰匙存在嚴重隱患。計算機行業早已認識到,這些“白帽黑客”都是自己人。
But the biggest difficulty is that, for now, companies have few incentives to take security seriously. As was the case with the internet in the 1990s, most of these threats are still on the horizon. This means getting security wrong has—for the moment—no impact on a firm’s reputation or its profits. That too will change, says Dr Anderson, at least in those industries where the consequences of a breach are serious.但是,現在最大的困難是,各公司很少有動力認真對待安全問題。盡管20世紀90年代興起的互聯網影響深遠,但是大多數安全威脅仍只是微露端倪。這就說明,在目前看來,忽視安全問題對公司的聲譽或利潤都還未造成沖擊。但是,這種現象也將改變,至少在那些一旦受侵,后果不堪設想的行業是如此,安德森博士如此警告。