UNIT 3

COMPUTER SECURITY

Learning Outcomes:
By the end of the lesson, the students are expected to be able to use appropriate English to:
▪ identify and explain about computer threats and its prevention and solutions.
▪ identify and explain kinds of computer crimes.
▪ read and understand a news about a computer crime and make analysis about the
punishments.
▪ make analysis of a computer crime and present it to the class.
▪ understand the use of past simple.
▪ identify and explain kinds of hackers based on the video given.

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3.1. Computer Virus

Exercise 1: Work in pairs. Discuss what kinds of computer threats you know and how to prevent
as well as to solve them.

Exercise 2: Read the descriptions 1-8. Match the words in the box to the descriptions.

adware hacker browser hijacker malware attack

spyware Trojan virus worm

1. _____________ Malicious software that can copy itself and infect the system.
2. _____________ A program which is usually free but contains malicious files.
3. _____________ A program that automatically plays commercials on a computer.
4. _____________ Affects privacy. It does not take control of a computer system, but sends
information about the use of a computer system.
5. _____________ An effort to gain unauthorized access to a computer.
6. _____________ Spreads without the user taking action and usually acts in operation
system.
7. _____________ A person who on purpose attempts to break into a computer system and
use it without the knowledge of the owner.
8. _____________ Software that replaces the user’s search engine with its own.

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Exercise 3: Match the security, solution 1-5 to its purpose a-e.

1. a firewall. a. prevents damage that viruses might

2. antivirus software. cause.
3. authentication. b. make sure only authorized people
4. username, password, and biometric access the network.
scanning. c. checks the user is allowed to use
5. encryption. system.
d. blocks unauthorized access codes.
e. protects the system from public places.

Exercise 4: Listen to this dialogue and answer the questions. Ludek has asked his IT expert
friend, Ales, for help.
1. Why does Ludek want Ales to check his laptop?
2. Why is Ludek worried that he may lose his project?
3. What does Ales think has happened to Ludek’s laptop?
4. Why does he recommend Ludek installs an anti-spyware software?
5. Why is it important to have a network access password?
6. What will Ales do for Ludek?

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3.3. Grammar Study

Exercise 5: Read Part 1 of the text and answer the questions.

1. Which hacking case inspired the film War Games?
2. When did Captain Zap hack into Pentagon?
3. Why was Nicholas Whitely arrested in 1988?
4. How old was the hacker that broke into the US defence computer in 1989?

The History of Hacking – Part 1

1971 John Draper discovered that a whistle offered in boxes of Cap’n Crunch breakfast cereal perfectly
generated the 2,600Hz signal used by T&T phone company. He started to make free calls. He was
arrested in 1972 but wasn’t sent to prison.
1974 Kevin Mitnik, a legend among hackers, began hacking into banking networks and altering the credit
reports of his enemies. He did’nt expect that his most famous exploit – hacking into the North
American Defense Command in Colorado Springs – would inspire the film War Games in 1983.
1981 Ian Murphy, a 23-year-old known as Captain Zap on the networks, hacked into the White House and the
Pentagon.
1987 The IBM international network was paralysed by a hacker’s Chrismas message.
1988 The Union Bank of Switzerland almost lost £32 million to hackers. Nicholas Whitely was arrested in
connection with virus spreading.
1989 A 15-year-old hacker cracked the US defence computer.
1991 Kevin Poulsen, knows as dark dante on the networks, was accused of stealing military files.

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Past Simple
▪ We use the past simple to talk about a complete action or
event which happened at a specific time in the past.
past now
He began hacking in 1974.
▪ We form the past simple of regular verbs (V2) by adding (-
ed) to the basic form of the verb (V1).
John Draper discovered that a whistle in boxes of Cap’n
Crunch breakfast cereal perfectly generated the 2,600Hz
signal used by T&T phone company.
▪ We form questions and negatives using did/didn’t.
When did captain Zap hack into the Pentagon?
He didn’t expect that his most famous hacking would inspire a
producer to make a movie.
▪ We form the past passive with the past simple of be + the
past participle (V3).
He was arrested in 1972 but wasn’t sent to prison.
The IBM international network was paralysed by a hacker’s
Chrismas message.

▪ There are many verbs which are irregular in the past simple.

Kevin Mitnik began hacking into banking networks and altering

the credit reports of his enemies.

begin – began

Exercise 6: Using the words in the box, complete the text about the History of Hacking with the
past form of the verbs.

show spread steal launch attempt overwrite be infect affect

Kinds– Part
The History of Hacking of Hacker
2
1992 David L Smith ____________ (1) prosecuted for writing
1. ….…… the Melissa virus, which
2. ..……… was passed in Word
3. ..………
files sent via email.
Person’s name
1997 The German Chaos Computer Cllub _____________ (2) on TV how to obtain money from bank accounts.
2000 Crimes
A Russian hacker ___________ (3) to extrort $100,000 from online music retailer CD Universe.
A Canadian hacker ____________ (4) a massive denial of service attack against websites like Yahoo!
and Amazon.
The IloveYou virus, cleverly disguised as a love letter ___________ (5) so quickly that email had to be
shut down in many companies. The worm ___________(6) image and sound files with a copy of itself.
2001 The Cod Red worm ___________ (7) tens of thousands of machines.
2006 Hackers ________________ (8) the credit card details of almost 20,000 AT&T online costumers.
However, subscribers to its service (not) __________________ (9).

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Differences English for Informatics 2: Fourth Edition
3.2 Computer Crime

Exercise 7: Work in pairs. What do you know about computer crime? Define it!

Exercise 8: Discuss with your group what these kinds of computer crime are. Match the crimes
to the short descriptions below.

1. Salami Shaving b. Leaving, within a completed program, an illicit program that allows
2. Denial of Service Attack unauthorized – and unknown – entry.
c. Using another person’s identification code or using that person’s files
3. Trojan Horse
before he or she has logged off.
4. Trapdoors d. Adding hidden instruction to a computer program but actually doing
5. Mail bombing something destructive in the background.
e. Tricking a user into showing confidential information such as an access
6. Software Piracy
code or a credit card number.
7. Piggybacking f. Flooding an email address with thousands of messages, thereby slowing
8. Phishing or even crashing the server.
g. Manipulating programs or data so that small amounts of money are
9. Defacing
deducted from a large number of transactions or accounts and
10. Hijacking accumulated elsewhere.
11. Spoofing h. Unauthorized copying a program for a sale or distributing to other
users.
i. Swamping a server with large numbers of requests.
j. Redirecting anyone trying to visit a certain site elsewhere.
k. Changing the information shown on another person’s website.
l. Pretending to be someone that can be trusted in order to steal
personal info such as passwords or credit card details.

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Exercise 9: Read the news article and discuss the following questions with your partner.
1. How serious do you think Robert Morris’ crime was?
2. Do you think the punishment was
• Too severe?
• About right?
• Not severe enough?
Why? State your reasons!

NSA consultant’s son is

Computer saboteur
‘Worm’ came from graduate student

A court heard today how a Cornell University graduate student,

Robert T. Morris Jr. (25), infected a host of government and
educational computer center with a computer virus, known as a
‘worm’, which literally brought all computational activities to a halt in
over 6,000 installations. Morris, the son of a prominent National
Security Agency computer consultant, was sentenced for his
offences yesterday. As punishment, he was required to spend no
time in prison but, instead, serve three years’ probation, contribute 400 hours of community service,
and to pay a $10,000 fine along with associated court and probation costs.

Oxford English for Computing, Boeckner and Brown (1994: 84)

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Exercise 10: Watch the video entitled “Hacker Outlaws and Angels” (by Discovery Channels).
While watching, identify kinds of hackers, each name, and crime.

Kinds of Hacker
1. ….…… 2. ..……… 3. ..………
Person’s name
Crimes

Differences

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Exercise 11. Work in pairs. Find an article from newspaper about a computer crime in Indonesia,
discuss, and make an analysis by answering these following questions.
1. From the news, identify:
a. The doers/criminals
b. The crime commited
c. The punishment
2. Do you think the punishment fit the crime? Why? Why not?
3. What should people do to prevent themselves from being the victims of such crime?

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