VOA标准英语2009-US Creates Military Cyber Command to Defend

The U.S. Defense¹ Department is in the final stages of creating a new military command to defend against attacks on the nation's military computer systems. We report from the Pentagon on plans for U.S. Cyber Command.

Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn says senior military officers are in the final stages of working out the command's structure and responsibilities, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates is evaluating proposals. Experts say the long-planned command is expected to be created soon.

Deputy Secretary Lynn says the need is urgent.

"This is not an emerging threat," said William Lynn. "This is not some future threat. The cyber threat is here today. It is here now."

Lynn says the threat of cyber attacks is an "unprecedented² challenge" due to the variety of potential attackers, the speed with which network attacks happen and the impact they can have.

He says the U.S. Defense Department has 15,000 computer networks, seven million computers and other network devices, and more than three million log-ons to its systems each day, making it what he calls a "tempting³ target" for malicious⁴ attacks. He says the systems receive millions of scans and thousands of potentially damaging probes every day.

The deputy secretary says that so far the attacks have not cost any lives by disabling computer systems at a critical moment. But he says they do cost billions of dollars in computer and network security programs every year, and require the attention of some 90,000 Defense Department employees.

One successful attack last year infected thousands of defense department computers and forced procedural changes designed to improve security. Lynn says such an attack could have been devastating⁵.

"There is simply no exaggerating our military dependency on our information networks," he said. "The command and control of our forces, the intelligence and logistics upon which they depend, the weapons technologies we develop and field, they all depend on our computer systems and networks. Indeed, our 21st century military simply can not function without them."

As a result, Lynn says the U.S. military now considers cyberspace⁶ an operational domain⁷, just like land, sea, air and outer space. He says officials are working to develop military doctrine⁸ and procedures for cyberspace operations and to increase the department's expertise⁹ in cyber security. He declined to say what, if any, offensive actions the United States is taking, or might take, in cyberspace, but he did say this:

"One of the reasons we're looking at a Cyber Command is to unify¹⁰ all aspects of cyber defense, so that you don't separate out offense¹¹, defense, intelligence, so that all of the various aspects work together," said Lynn.

Lynn emphasized that the creation of Cyber Command will not militarize overall U.S. government efforts to protect American government and private computer systems. That effort will be led by a Cyber Security Coordinator¹² - a new position President Barack Obama says he will soon create at the White House.

The civilian¹³ effort will involve several agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, the National Security Agency and the intelligence services, with help from the Defense Department. Lynn pledged it will not infringe¹⁴ on Americans' civil liberties - a concern some experts have expressed.

The deputy defense secretary says that more than 100 foreign intelligence services have the ability to launch cyber attacks, as do countless¹⁵ criminal organizations and individual hackers¹⁶. In addition to the successful cyber attack on the U.S. Defense Department last year, Lynn says there were successful attacks on Estonia and Kyrgyzstan, as well as the disabling of key Georgian computer systems during last year's Russian invasion. He says many of the world's cyber attacks come from China, but that it is not possible to determine whether they originate from government entities¹⁷ or malicious individuals.

1 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

2 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

3 tempting   

a.诱人的, 吸引人的

参考例句：

• It is tempting to idealize the past. 人都爱把过去的日子说得那么美好。
• It was a tempting offer. 这是个诱人的提议。

4 malicious   

adj.有恶意的，心怀恶意的

参考例句：

• You ought to kick back at such malicious slander. 你应当反击这种恶毒的污蔑。
• Their talk was slightly malicious.他们的谈话有点儿心怀不轨。

5 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

6 cyberspace   

n.虚拟信息空间，网络空间，计算机化世界

参考例句：

• She travels in cyberspace by sending messages to friends around the world.她利用电子空间给世界各地的朋友们发送信件。
• The teens spend more time in cyberspace than in the real world of friends and family.青少年花费在电脑上的时间比他们和真正的朋友及家人在一起的时间要多。

7 domain   

n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围

参考例句：

• This information should be in the public domain.这一消息应该为公众所知。
• This question comes into the domain of philosophy.这一问题属于哲学范畴。

8 doctrine   

n.教义；主义；学说

参考例句：

• He was impelled to proclaim his doctrine.他不得不宣扬他的教义。
• The council met to consider changes to doctrine.宗教议会开会考虑更改教义。

9 expertise   

n.专门知识(或技能等)，专长

参考例句：

• We were amazed at his expertise on the ski slopes.他斜坡滑雪的技能使我们赞叹不已。
• You really have the technical expertise in a new breakthrough.让你真正在专业技术上有一个全新的突破。

10 unify   

vt.使联合，统一；使相同，使一致

参考例句：

• How can we unify such scattered islands into a nation?我们怎么才能把如此分散的岛屿统一成一个国家呢？
• It is difficult to imagine how the North and South could ever agree on a formula to unify the divided peninsula.很难想象南北双方在统一半岛的方案上究竟怎样才能达成一致。

11 offense   

n.犯规，违法行为；冒犯，得罪

参考例句：

• I hope you will not take any offense at my words. 对我讲的话请别见怪。
• His words gave great offense to everybody present.他的发言冲犯了在场的所有人。

12 coordinator   

n.协调人

参考例句：

• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, headed by the Emergency Relief Coordinator, coordinates all UN emergency relief. 联合国人道主义事务协调厅在紧急救济协调员领导下，负责协调联合国的所有紧急救济工作。
• How am I supposed to find the client-relations coordinator? 我怎么才能找到客户关系协调员的办公室？

13 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。

14 infringe   

v.违反，触犯，侵害

参考例句：

• The jury ruled that he had infringed no rules.陪审团裁决他没有违反任何规定。
• He occasionally infringe the law by parking near a junction.他因偶尔将车停放在交叉口附近而违反规定。

15 countless   

adj.无数的，多得不计其数的

参考例句：

• In the war countless innocent people lost their lives.在这场战争中无数无辜的人丧失了性命。
• I've told you countless times.我已经告诉你无数遍了。

16 hackers   

n.计算机迷( hacker的名词复数 )；私自存取或篡改电脑资料者，电脑“黑客”

参考例句：

• They think of viruses that infect an organization from the outside.They envision hackers breaking into their information vaults. 他们考虑来自外部的感染公司的病毒，他们设想黑客侵入到信息宝库中。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Arranging a meeting with the hackers took weeks againoff-again email exchanges. 通过几星期电子邮件往来安排见面，他们最终同意了。 来自互联网

17 entities   

实体对像； 实体，独立存在体，实际存在物( entity的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Our newspaper and our printing business form separate corporate entities. 我们的报纸和印刷业形成相对独立的企业实体。
• The North American continent is made up of three great structural entities. 北美大陆是由三个构造单元组成的。