attack of the cybermen Flashcards
workhorse
[wɜ:rkhɔ:rs]
Sophisticated viruses will be the workhorses of 21st-century spying. But there should be rules
[NOUN] [usu with supp] If you describe a person or a machine as a workhorse, you mean that they can be relied upon to do a large amount of work, especially work that is dull or routine.
echo
proverbial [prə’vɜ:rbiəl]
IF ASKED why they spied on the computers of their rivals (and allies), the authors of Regin, a sophisticated computer virus that seems to have been designed by a Western government, would presumably echo the proverbial bank robber, and reply “because that’s where the secrets are”.
[VERB] If you echo someone’s words, you repeat them or express agreement with their attitude or opinion.
[ADJ] You use proverbial to show that you know the way you are describing something is one that is often used or is part of a popular saying.
sabotage
[‘sæbətɑ:ʒ]
As the world has gone digital, spying has, too. Regin is just the latest in a trend that first came to public notice in 2010, when a piece of American and Israeli software called Stuxnet was revealed to have been responsible for sabotaging part of Iran’s nuclear programme.
[VERB] [usu passive] If a machine, railway line, or bridge is sabotaged, it is deliberately damaged or destroyed, for example in a war or as a protest.
[VERB] If someone sabotages a plan or a meeting, they deliberately prevent it from being successful.
espionage
[‘espiənɑ:ʒ]
For spies, such digital espionage has advantages over the shoe-leather sort.
[NOUN] Espionage is the activity of finding out the political, military, or industrial secrets of your enemies or rivals by using spies.
fiddle
[‘fɪdəl]
microdot
smuggle
Computers are stuffed with data that can be copied and beamed around the world in seconds—so much easier than fiddling with microdots or smuggling sensitive documents past guards.
[VERB] If you fiddle with something, you change it in minor ways.
[NOUN] a microcopy about the size of a pinhead, used esp in espionage
[VERB] If someone smuggles things or people into a place or out of it, they take them there illegally or secretly.
riddle
The more complicated computer operating systems get, the more riddled they are with unnoticed security holes.
[VERB] If someone riddles something with bullets or bullet holes, they fire a lot of bullets into it.
plug
give way
Staying safe means plugging them all; an attacker need only keep trying until a single one gives way.
[VERB] If you plug a hole, you block it with something.
break or fall down
not least
There are hints that Regin might be British—not least that one of its modules seems to be called “LEGSPIN”, a cricketing term. British spooks refuse to comment.
especially
spook
[spu:k]
put someone in harm’s way
And it can be conducted from comfortable armchairs thousands of miles from the target, with no need to put human agents in harm’s way.
[NOUN] [AM, INFORMAL] A spook is a spy.
If someone is put in harm’s way, they are caused to be in a dangerous situation.
Hobbesian
spiral
One is that the low cost of gathering information this way may encourage more of it, and a Hobbesian world of spiralling espionage would be bad for everybody.
모두가 동일한 열정과 비슷한 힘을 갖고 있기에 누구도 절대적인 우위를 확보할 수 없다는 점을 홉스는 설득하려고 노력했다. 이 과정을 통해, 한편으로는 사회 구성원들 사이의 갈등으로부터 독립된 국가를 확립하고, 다른 한편으로는 자기보존이라는 개개인의 열망을 보장하려는, 이른바 근대 사회계약론의 물꼬가 트였다.
[VERB] If an amount or level spirals, it rises quickly and at an increasing rate.
with abandon
there is a danger that the greater ease of attacking an enemy’s digital assets means that governments will make war on each other with greater abandon.
[NOUN] [disapproval] If you say that someone does something with abandon, you mean that they behave in a wild, uncontrolled way and do not think or care about how they should behave.
parallel
[pærəlel]
There is a close parallel with drone warfare, which is similarly cheaper and less risky than its flesh-and-blood counterpart.
[NOUN] If something has a parallel, it is similar to something else, but exists or happens in a different place or at a different time. If it has no parallel or is without parallel, it is not similar to anything else.
maim
[meɪm]
Although cyber-weapons may lower the threshold for attacks, they don’t (yet) kill or maim people.
[VERB] To maim someone means to injure them so badly that part of their body is permanently damaged.
spotless
But it is not clear that the West’s record is spotless:
[ADJ] Something that is spotless is completely clean.
unruly
[ʌn’ru:li]
Cyber-warfare is an unruly business, where rules will be flouted.
[ADJ] If you describe people, especially children, as unruly, you mean that they behave badly and are difficult to control.
