English 中文网 漫画网 爱新闻iNews 翻译论坛
中国网站品牌栏目(频道)
当前位置: Language Tips > Special Speed News VOA慢速

Is your computer committing cybercrimes?

[ 2012-04-11 13:31]     字号 [] [] []  
免费订阅30天China Daily双语新闻手机报:移动用户编辑短信CD至106580009009

Is your computer committing cybercrimes?

This is the VOA Special English Technology Report.

Last week, we told you about efforts by Microsoft Corporation to stop Zeus, one of the most harmful cybercrime operations active today. Zeus hackers use a network of infected computers, known as botnets, to steal personal information from computer users.

On March 23rd, officials seized computer servers in two states, Pennsylvania and Illinois. The servers were said to be operating some of the worst known Zeus botnets.

Richard Boscovich is with the Digital Crimes Unit at Microsoft. He says the operators of the servers did not know they were linked to cybercrime.

RICHARD BOSCOVICH: "The hosting providers in and of themselves are not necessarily in cahoots with the criminals, so to speak. In the room that we walked into there were over 10,000 computers. So their business is simply to host customers."

Zeus botnets are positioned all over the world. Mr. Boscovich says they act as command and control centers for the infected computers.

RICHARD BOSCOVICH: "It's not just one botnet but probably hundreds of different botnets that come from this particular code base."

And, he says, the Zeus botnets are not easy to identify.

RICHARD BOSCOVICH: "These command and control centers are constantly moving. So it takes a lot of effort to be able to identify where they were, or where they are and where they are going to be."

Microsoft says it is studying information gathered from the servers that were seized last month. It hopes to gather more evidence against the unidentified Zeus operators. It also hopes to identify and notify the more than 13 million computer users that have been infected with the Zeus malware.

Mr. Boscovich says there are many things that users can and should do to protect themselves from harmful software programs. At the very least, he says, they should be using legitimate software that has been purchased from creditable providers. And he says every computer must have current anti-virus software.

Most of all, Mr. Boscovich says, computer users must be careful about e-mails.

RICHARD BOSCOVICH: "The bad guys are extremely adept at sending emails that appear to be from friends, from family members or from banks or companies, in fact."

Microsoft is not alone in efforts to fight cybercrime. Security experts from CrowdStrike, Dell SecureWorks and other companies took down a large botnet known as Kelihos last month. As quickly as Kelihos was stopped, researchers say cybercriminals began working to build another botnet.

Also last month, the European Union announced steps to fight the growing problem of cybercrime. They include plans to establish a new cybercrimes center, to be based in The Hague. The center will deal with issues like misuse of credit card information, identity theft and the sexual abuse of children online.

And, that's the VOA Special English Technology Report, written by June Simms. I'm Steve Ember.

Related stories:

Microsoft takes on Zeus

黑客以MJ之名传播病毒

Teens, sexting and 'cyberbaiting'

僵尸电脑 zombie computer

(来源:VOA 编辑:旭燕)

 
中国日报网英语点津版权说明:凡注明来源为“中国日报网英语点津:XXX(署名)”的原创作品,除与中国日报网签署英语点津内容授权协议的网站外,其他任何网站或单位未经允许不得非法盗链、转载和使用,违者必究。如需使用,请与010-84883631联系;凡本网注明“来源:XXX(非英语点津)”的作品,均转载自其它媒体,目的在于传播更多信息,其他媒体如需转载,请与稿件来源方联系,如产生任何问题与本网无关;本网所发布的歌曲、电影片段,版权归原作者所有,仅供学习与研究,如果侵权,请提供版权证明,以便尽快删除。
 

关注和订阅

人气排行

翻译服务

中国日报网翻译工作室

我们提供:媒体、文化、财经法律等专业领域的中英互译服务
电话:010-84883468
邮件:translate@chinadaily.com.cn