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.
arm
It would be surprising if the West were not spying on Gazprom, for instance, which acts as an arm of the Russian state.
[NOUN] [usu sing, usu N of n] An arm of an organization is a section of it that operates in a particular country or that deals with a particular activity.
