Set Work

I. Master the pronunciation of the words below. Learn and translate them.

Espionage, scourge, benign, generate, malicious, revenue, asset, treacherous, circumvent, surreptitious, browser, inherent, foray, inadvertently, endorse, bona fides.

II. Explain what is meant by:

spyware, pop-up ads, an asset-management firm, help desk, to hit with a vengeance, corporate firewalls, screensaver, to click on a Web site, at bay, to skyrocket, to have $... in assets, security flaws, vendor, to spawn, to clean up one’s acts, to improve aggressively.

III. Look through the article for the English equivalents of:

осуществить полное обновление системы безопасности, не находиться в Интернете, начать очень медленно работать, проблема стала очень серьезной, второй по важности, тайно проникать, зайти на веб-сайт, скачивать информацию в Интернете, незаконно «вторгнуться» в чью-л. компьютерную систему, выпускник, растущая угроза, но этим проблема не будет исчерпана, огромный стимул, проблема стала более серьезной, быстрое накопление, способствовать росту какой-л. промышленности, устанавливать программное обеспечение.

IV. What do the following abbreviations stand for:

IT, PC, IDC, CEO.

V. State the difference between the words below. Give examples to illustrate their usage.

To tie – to bundle;

to hide – to hide out;

to calculate – to estimate – to value;

to stand – to stand at ($12 million);

to pour – to trickle.

VI. Add some more words to the given string.

Spyware, software, …, …, …, … .

VII. Fill in the correct prepositions. Check against the text.

1. Some software installs itself ___ a PC the moment a user clicks ___ a Web site.

2. Corporate firewalls have proven ineffective against this scourge because they often don’t prevent employees ___ downloading files ___ the Web browser, the main channel ___ which spyware sneaks ___ computers.

3. Spyware companies are also building multiple programs ___ each computer to monitor each other.

4. ___ the past year, antispyware spending has skyrocketed.

5. Antispyware revenue stood ___ $12 million in 2003.

6. Even Microsoft is getting ___ the antispyware market.

7. It’s unreasonable to expect every potential security hole to be patched without sacrificing some degree of user freedom ___ the Internet.

8. Eliot Spitzer filed a lawsuit ___ Intermix Media.

9. Their advertising spending has a way of trickling ___ ___ the big advertising firms to smaller and smaller Internet marketing firms, which are paid by the number of hits ___ particular Web sites.

10. 18 months ago he noticed a 20 percent increase ___ calls to IT help desk.

11. Spyware companies are a major threat ___ businesses.

12. ___ a 2005 survey by ITtoolbox, an information provider for the IT industry, 88 percent of business professionals detected spyware ___ their networks ___ the past 12 months.

VIII. Interpret the lines below.

1. PCs had slowed to a crawl.

2. If that’s not tricky enough, spyware companies have found ways to hide from the computer itself.

3. “These programs are blowing smoke to disguise the presence of the files,” says Eric Howes.

4. “We’re at the point now where if you remove 100 [pieces of spyware] and miss one, it’s all going to come back.”

5. … says Roger Thompson, director for malicious-content research at Computer Associates.

6. The surreptitious nature of the industry makes hard information scarce.

7. The company plans to offer support on the enterprise level.

8. Microsoft’s entry has some rival antispyware companies peeved.

9. “The extent that Microsoft wants to profit by jumping into the security industry instead of fixing their product… seems to me like an inherent conflict of interest,” says Rick Carlson.

10. Not everyone is crying foul about Bill Gates & Co.’s latest foray.

11. Corporations, meanwhile, are taking a hard look at their own advertising practices.

12. Companies such as America Online have implemented a zero-tolerance policy.

13. “[Their] strategies until the last year or so was to get big by any means necessary, and then once you get [there] you ask the industry to forgive you for the sins of the past.”

14. Lawmakers are also beginning to draw a hard line.

15. At war against a shadowy, well-financed enemy, businesses will need all the help they can get.