节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2012-09-25
难易度:High
关键字:disturbance, tactic, perceive, interpretation, sit-in, disturbed
denial-of-service [DDoS]
Hi, everybody.
Thanks for joining us today here at Studio Classroom Worldwide.
My name is Steve.
Here's a question college freshman might face in a Philosophy 101 Class.
Is it OK to do something morally wrong if it achieves a morally right outcome?
This is the question for today's topic Hacktivism.
You see, hacktivists are doing good by making their voices heard over the
Internet.
They protest things that are unfair while they promote things that are.
So far so good.
Problems arise, however, when the methods hacktivists use to reach their goals
aren't fair, good or right.
Let's get more details in today's reading on page 46.
Hacktivism.
Hacktivists tend to agree on keeping the Internet free.
But their methods of involving supporters vary.
The Electronic Disturbance Theater (EDT) is a group that arranges virtual
sit-ins,
in which users voluntarily participate in protests against unfair treatment of
students or workers.
If enough users visit a site at one time, it crashes.
The headline-grabbing group Anonymous has used tactics such as posting links
that trick users into participating in one of their distributed
denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.
(Music).
Hello, everyone.
Thank you for joining us.
My name is Ryan.
And my name is Kaylah.
And today we're back in our TECHNOLOGY article talking about maybe a strange
topic to you called Hacktivism.
That's right. We've learned yesterday that hacktivism is when activists, or
people who want their voices to be heard,
use computers in a way that they are not supposed to be using them in order to
voice their opinion.
That's right.
We've seen a couple of different things they do.
They show weaknesses in different security systems they break into, let their
opinions be known.
Or they put special attention on a cause so the media will focus on it.
That's right.
So they use computers in order to try and break into websites, break into other
people's computers, use them in ways they are not designed to be used.
But they're not trying to steal information or money.
They just want people to hear their message.
That's right.
That's what separates them from online Internet criminals.
Now hacktivists have a lot more to them, so we're going to go slowly and figure
out what they want.
OK. Well, hacktivists tend to agree on keeping the Internet free.
We remember from yesterday they like their freedoms, and they will make their
voices heard if they feel like they are losing their freedom.
Now all activists tend to fight at some point.
They don't always get along.
But for hacktivists, this is the important piece.
They all agree that the Internet should remain free to use.
Yes, not free of charge, also free to be saying what you want to say and use it
in a way you want to use it.
That's right.
But sometimes their methods of involving supporters may vary.
So they all agree that they want to share their opinions freely, but their
methods, or the way they do it, is different.
And of course, they do have supporters.
Those are people who agree with what they are doing and want to help.
But they use those people in different ways, which means their methods vary.
Well, the Electronic Disturbance Theater, also known as the EDT, is a group that
arranges virtual sit-ins, in which users voluntarily participate.
We're going to talk about what they're participating in in just a second.
But let's look at the beginning of the sentence first.
OK. This is called the Electronics Disturbance Theater.
Now the word "disturbance" means to interrupt something or bother them in a way
that causes them to worry.
And when we're talking about hacktivists, they are always causing a disturbance.
That is their point.
They are making something known by making some sort of noise, some sort of
point.
And they do this by creating a disturbance online.
Exactly. OK.
Now we know they arrange virtual sit-ins.
Now, not talking about something that is virtual, Kaylah, what is a sit-in?
Well, a "sit-in" really means a public event where people, or groups of people,
enter a place and refuse to leave.
So they physically go in and sit down.
Now this was very common in the 1960s in America when the... the African
Americans were fighting for their freedoms.
They would go all sit in a restaurant that would refuse to serve them to make
their point.
But we're not doing that in real life now, we're doing it virtually.
Exactly.
That's the difference is people are going to websites or going to chat rooms
online and sitting in, and they will not leave until people listen to them.
That's right.
And they're doing this voluntarily, which means they're offering to do it and
they're not getting paid.
Now they do this to protest against unfair treatment of students or workers.
So they're fighting for people's rights.
OK. So yeah, if they feel like someone is not being treated fairly, then they're
going to go in and tell people about it.
Now if enough users visit a website at one time, it crashes.
And to crash means it shuts down and no longer works.
OK. Now we've seen this happened a lot of times before.
Maybe you enjoy playing video games, and you buy the newest game on the first
day it comes out.
And you can't use it because everyone else bought it too, and the website
crashed.
Now there is the headline-grabbing group called Anonymous, this is one of our
hacktivism groups,
has used tactics such as posting links that trick users into participating in
one of their disturbance... disturbance denial-of-service attacks.
OK. That is a mouthful.
First, we're talking about how they're using "tactics." And friends, that is a
way of doing something, a method of using a plan.
That's right.
That's the plan and how they do it.
So they do this by posting a link, people click on it, and it tricks them, or
they get fooled into going into participating in one of these attacks.
OK. And this is called "distributed denial-of-service," or [DDoS], attack.
And that is when computers are sent a lot of information, in fact, too much
information, for them to handle and they can't do it and so they break down.
That's right.
So if too many people at one time send all the information to a certain
computer, it will crash, just like these sit-ins cause.
So you click on a link, it takes you to that website, causes it to crash, shut
down and their voice has been heard.
So what are people doing about this?
We'll find out after we watch the skit.
So what cause should we promote first?
I place a high value on freedom of speech.
Me too.
Let's work to achieve that objective.
How about a sit-in?
A sit-in? On the computer?
Yes. We get so many people to visit a website that it crashes.
Crashing a website is not enough.
We need more aggressive tactics.
More aggressive? Such as?
Well, when we perceive a threat to Internet freedom, we attack and shut down
websites.
No. I have a better idea.
Instead of attacking the Internet, let's build communication networks.
What do you mean?
If the Internet goes down, we help build emergency communication networks.
Oh. So we don't attack, but we provide communication service.
Exactly. Let's get started.
Wait! First we need to agree on the best tactic.
Let's do a sit-in.
No. Let's shut down websites.
Or we could provide emergency communication.
Let's do that!
Come on. We're hacktivists. We're troublemakers.
No. We're hacktivists. We're heroes.
Troublemakers.
Heroes with agendas.
Yes. Shut down websites.
No. Have a sit-in.
Let's do both.
OK.
But first, let's check Facebook.
Oh. Good idea.
Me first.