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Work in pairs. Skim the text and underline

Italian equivalent where possible.

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the types

Wild West

he Internet is a public land, a sort of digital Wild

West, and the lure' of this trontier has an endless
stream of wagon trains "heading west". Anyone can
come along. Thus, just like the rest of the world,
cyberspace is not a perfectly safe piace to visit and
people in it reflect reallife - most are good and a
few are bado New technologies have created new
criminal opportunities and new types of crime.
Hackers are opportunists: they attack individuals as well as
websites by using a variety of software and malicious programs. A
hacker may attack Internet providers (ISPs) for several reasons:
he may be angry at the ISP (Internet System Provider) or at
someone using the ISp, or he might attack the provider for the
mere thrill of it. One of the most popular ways is called smurf
attack or smurfing. In this attack, the hacker floods the ISP
with so many garbage packets that ali the provider's available
bandwidth is used up'. As a result, ISP's customers can't send or
receive data and can't use email, browse the Web, or use any other
Internet service. Hackers can also take over people's computers
with viruses which can damage their hard disk, corrupt or delete
data and files, and steal personal information and passwords.
The Internet is filled with hate mongers, whose objective is to
foster hate, discrimination, prejudice, bigotry and/ or intolerance.
It is not difficult to find hate sites on the Net. By definition, they
represent extremist views. Some, however, get Yery personal,
often attacking public figures, others simply attack individuals
who have different views. Under pressure, several Internet portals
have decided not to include such sites in their indices. However,
this action doesn't make them go away,it just makes them harder
to find.
And then there's spam, unsolicited junk email that commerciai
companies send out, asking you to buy goods and services.
The email usually contains a phone number to cali, an address
to send money to, or a website to visit. Spam might seem like
a minor annoyance, but the truth is that it can cause major
problems. Spam floods the Internet with unwanted email, which
can lead to delayed or lost mai!. It clogs the Internet pipeline,
making other information slower to send. It is difficult to track
how you turn up on somebody's spam list. Spammers buy or

TECHNICAL

crime mentioned,

then provide

their

compile massive lists of email addresses, in the

same way as junk mailers buy or compile postal
addresses. The spammers then use special software
to send a solicitation to every person on the list, not
uncommonly, tens of thousands of pieces of email in a
single spam mailing.
Phishers are nothing more than tech-savvy cori!
artists and identity thieves. They use spam, fake
websites, phone calls and other techniques to trick
people into divulging sensitive information, such as
bank and credit card account details, social security
numbers, passwords. They might email you, cali you on the
phone, or convince you to download something from a website.
To hide the identity of the phisher, attacks are not sent from
the phisher's computer. Instead, a phisher hires a person who
controls a network ofthousands ofzombie PCs4 (calledbots)
whose owners do not know they have been turned into zombies.
The person contro11ingthe botnet tells them to send out the
email composed by the phisher. The email is then sent to tens of
thousands or more people. Specific individuals are not targeted.
Couched' in urgent, business-like language, the email contains
a message that appears to come from a well-known and trusted
company (a bank, or a financial institution). Sometimes the
email directs the recipient to a spoofef website (e.g. Amazon
or eBay) , which, like the email, appears authentic and urges the
visitors to log on their account, perhaps to verity information,
or perhaps to be sure their account does not expire. They are
told to click a link or get to the site. They log on, and ali their
information is stolen. Once they have captured enough victims'
information, they either use the stolen information themselves
to defraud the victims (e.g., by opening up new accounts using
the victim's name or draining' the victim's bank accounts) or
they sell it on the black market for a profit.
lure: the attractive qualities of something
used up: having nothing left
3 con: trick, cheat
4 zombie: computer di cui si impossessa un hacker per lanciare
i suoi attacchi
5 couched: written or said in a particular style or m~nner
6 spoofed: imitated
7 draining: emptying
1

ENGLlSH

smurfing

28-

of cyber

spam

phisher

zombie PC I bot

botnet

Read Text 2 more carefully, then take turns to ask and answer

How does the writer define the Internet?

What kind of sites are run by hate mongers?

Who/what do you think the writer refers to with

"endless stream of wagon trains"?
Who are the hacker's attacks aimed at?

e
f
9

What do spammers do?

What do phishers use to fool users?
How do they use the stolen infonnation?

the following

questions.