VOA慢速英语2021 美国五角大楼授权私营企业控制其庞大的闲置互联网空间（在线收听）

The U.S. Department of Defense has given a private company control over a massive part of its unused internet space.

美国国防部已经授权一家私营公司控制其大部分闲置互联网空间。

The Florida-based company, identified in news reports as Global Resource Systems, now controls more than 175 million IP addresses belonging to the military. An IP address is a number given to each computer when it is connected to the internet.

这家位于佛罗里达州的公司在新闻报道中被称为全球资源系统有限公司，目前该公司控制着超过1.75亿属于美国军方的IP地址。IP地址是每台计算机连接互联网时被分配的一组数字。

The addresses have long been owned by the Defense Department, but were not being used by the agency.

这些地址一直归美国国防部所有，但是并未被该机构使用。

Experts in the computer networking industry had been wondering about the change, which happened the day President Joe Biden was sworn into office in January. Military officials made no official announcement about the move.

计算机网络行业的专家对发生在拜登总统一月份宣誓就职当天的这种变化感到好奇。军方官员尚未正式宣告这一举措。

The huge number of IP addresses involved has been estimated to be about 1/25th the size of the current internet. It is also thought to be more than twice the size of the internet space actually used by the Pentagon.

事件所涉及的这些数量庞大的IP地址大约占到了目前互联网规模的4%。它也被认为是五角大楼实际使用互联网空间的两倍以上。

"It is massive. That is the biggest thing in the history of the internet," expert Doug Madory told The Associated Press. He is the director of internet analysis at Kentik, a company that designs and operates computer networks.

专家道格·马杜里对美联社表示：“它的规模非常庞大，这是互联网历史上最重大的事件。”马杜里是Kentik公司的互联网分析总监，这是一家设计和运营计算机网络的公司。

The Defense Department confirmed the change in a statement by Brett Goldstein, chief of the Pentagon's Defense Digital Service, which is running the project.

美国国防部通过布雷特·戈德斯坦发布的一份声明确认了这一变化，戈德斯坦是负责该项目的五角大楼国防数字服务部负责人。

The military hopes to "assess, evaluate and prevent" the "unauthorized use" of agency IP address space, the statement said.

声明表示，军方希望评估、评价和防止未经授权使用国防部的IP地址空间。

It added that the "pilot project" also aims to identify possible "vulnerabilities" that could lead to internet attacks by international groups attempting to break into U.S. networks.

声明还表示，这一试点项目还旨在找出潜在的漏洞，这些漏洞可能导致试图闯入美国网络的国际组织发起互联网攻击。

In addition to attempted attacks, the Defense Department has also experienced problems with outside groups or individuals taking over and using its internet space without permission. This happened, in part, because there has been a shortage of first-generation internet addresses since 2011.

除了攻击企图，国防部还遇到过外部组织或个人未经批准接管和使用其互联网空间的问题。发生这种情况的部分原因是由于2011年以来，第一代互联网地址一直短缺。

Kentik's Madory said advertising the address space will make it easier to get rid of unauthorized users. It should also permit the military to "collect a massive amount of background internet traffic for threat intelligence," he added.

Kentik公司的马杜里表示，展示这些地址空间将使得摆脱未授权用户更为容易。他还表示，这还将允许美国军方“收集大量的后台互联网流量以获取威胁情报。”

Some cybersecurity experts have suggested the Pentagon may be using the newly advertised space to create so-called "honeypots." These are machines set up with vulnerabilities to draw in internet attackers, or hackers.

一些网络专家提出，五角大楼可能是在利用这些新展示的互联网空间来制造所谓的蜜罐。这些机器设置有漏洞以吸引互联网攻击者或黑客。

The project could also be the start of a new system of software and servers set up to search internet traffic for suspect activity, the experts say. "This greatly increases the space they could monitor," Madory said.

专家表示，这些项目也可能是开始建立新的软件或服务器系统，用于搜索从事可疑活动的互联网流量。马杜里表示：“这将大大增加他们可监控的空间。”

A Defense Department spokesman did not comment on why the military chose Global Resource Systems to oversee the IP addresses. The company, which operates an office in Plantation, Florida, did not return phone calls or emails from The Associated Press seeking information.

国防部发言人并未对军方为何选择全球资源系统有限公司来管理这些IP地址做出评论。这家公司在佛罗里达州普兰泰申市设立了办事处，但是该公司并未回复美联社寻求获得更多信息的电话或邮件。

A Defense Department spokesman told the AP that even with the current shortage of IP addresses, the Pentagon has no interest in selling any of its unused space.

国防部发言人对美联社表示，即使目前IP地址短缺，五角大楼也无意出售其任何闲置网络空间。