Virtually every company with a computeris vulnerable to computer abuse, crime and accident. Security of the computerand of the information and assets contained within it are therefore ofparamount importance to management. (46) Skilled computer criminals canbreak into a computer system far more easily than an armed robber can gainaccess to a bank vault, and usually with far less risk of apprehension andpunishment. A slight change in a complex program can bring about themisappropriation of thousands of pounds. Accidental erasure of crucial data canparalyse a company’s operations. Anyone familiar with the procedure can gainaccess to information stored in the computer, no matter how confidential, anduse it for his own purposes. Although the actual extent of computercrime is difficult to measure, most experts agree that it is one of the fastestgrowing areas of illegal activity. (47) The principal reason for both thegrowth and the lack of accurate measurement is the difficulty in detecting awell-executed theft. Losses per incident thus tend to be higher than in othertypes of theft. Once the computer criminal has compromised the system, itis just as easy to steal a great sum as it is to steal a little, and tocontinue stealing long after the initial theft. Indeed, the computer criminalmay find it more difficult to stop his illicit activity than to start it. (48) Computer criminals are, for the mostpart, well-educated and highly intelligent, and have the analytical skills thatmake them valued employees.The fact that computer criminals do not fit criminal stereotypes helps them toobtain the positions they require to carry out crimes. Being intelligent, theyhave fertile imaginations, and the variety of ways in which they use equipmentto their advantage is constantly being extended. (49) In addition to directtheft of funds, the theft of data for corporate espionage or extortion isbecoming widespread, and can obviously have a substantial effect on a company’sfinances. Another lucrative scheme, often difficult to detect, involvesaccumulating fractions of pence from individidual payroll accounts, withelectronic transfer of the accumulated amount to the criminal’s payroll.Employers are hardly concerned with pence, much less fractions of pence. In addition,of course, the company’s total payroll is unaffected. But the cumulative valueof fractions of pence per employee in a company with a substantial payroll canadd up to a useful gain. Sabotageis also an increasingly common type of computer crime. This can involvedisabling the hardware, but is more likely to affect the software. Everyone inthe computer business has heard of cases of a “time-bomb” being placed in aprogram. (50) Typically, the programmer inserts an instruction that causesthe computer to destroy an entire personnel data bank, for example, if theprogrammer’s employment is terminated. As soon as the terminationdata is fed into the system, it automatically erases the entire
Directions: In the following passage, there are five groups of underlined sentences. Read the passage carefully and translate these sentences into Chinese. Write the Chinese version on your Answer Sheet.
【正确答案】：46熟练利用计算机犯罪的人侵入电脑系统比武装劫匪闯入银行金库要容易得多,而其被捕和受惩罚的风险却小得多。
47计算机犯罪率的攀升以及对其危害性缺乏精确的测定,主要原因在于精心实施的偷窃行为难以侦破。因而每次损失比其他类型的偷窃损失要高。
48通常,利用计算机进行犯罪活动的人都受过良好的教育,具有高智商和分析能力,这使他们成为受重视的雇员。
49除了直接盗窃金钱外,窃取信息用于商业间谍活动或者商业敲诈的行为也变得愈发猖獗,并且它们很明显对公司的财务会产生极坏的影响。
50典型的案例是,程序员可以输入一道指令,比如说,一旦他被解雇该指 令便会摧毁整个的人事资料库。
