VOA常速英语2021--华盛顿警察局遭俄语勒索软件袭击

While the world's wealthier nations have stockpiled the Coronavirus vaccines¹ for their citizens, many other poorer countries are still scrambling² to secure doses. A few have yet to receive any whatsoever³. The World Health Organization says about a dozen countries, many of them in Africa, are still waiting to get vaccines. Those last in line on the continent along with Chad are Burkina Faso, Burundi, Eritrea and Tanzania, WHO says delays and shortages are driving African countries to slip further behind the rest of the world in the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, with the continent accounting⁴ for only 1% of the vaccines administered worldwide so far.

尽管世界上较富裕的国家已经为本国公民储备了新冠疫苗，但许多其他较贫穷的国家仍在争抢疫苗剂量。其中部分国家尚未收到过疫苗。世界卫生组织称，大约有十几个国家仍在等待获得疫苗，其中许多是非洲国家。非洲大陆上排在疫苗获取队列最末尾的是乍得、布基纳法索、布隆迪、厄立特里亚和坦桑尼亚。世卫组织表示，拖延和短缺问题正在促使非洲国家在新冠疫苗推出方面进一步落后于世界其他国家，迄今为止，非洲大陆的疫苗接种量只占全世界总接种量的1%。

Criminal hackers⁵ are now using brazen⁶ methods to try to extort⁷ money from law enforcement agencies including leaking or threatening to leak highly sensitive and potentially life-threatening information. The defiant⁸ attacks on law enforcement agencies underscore how little the criminal syndicates that operate ransomware gangs fear any repercussions⁹. In Washington DC, a Russian-speaking ransomware something you call Babuk hacked¹⁰ into the network of the City Police Department and threatened to leak the identities of departments confidential¹¹ informants. Experts say that they hadn't seen such aggressive tactics used against police departments before.

犯罪性黑客当前正使用无耻手段试图向执法机构勒索钱财，包括泄露或威胁泄露高度敏感及可能危及生命的信息。对执法机构的挑衅攻击突显出这些操纵勒索软件的犯罪集团对任何后果都毫无畏惧。一个自称Babuk的俄语勒索软件侵入了华盛顿特区的警察局网络，并威胁泄露警方秘密线人的身份。专家们称，他们之前从未见过如此嚣张挑衅警方的手段。

Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador says that Mexico has complained to US officials about their alleged¹² financing for anti-corruption group that he said has engaged in political activity against his administration. He made the announcement at a news conference shortly before Friday's online meeting with the US vice¹³ President Kamala Harris, the issue apparently¹⁴ did not arise at that meeting. Via remote, I'm Tommy McNeal VOA news.

墨西哥总统安德烈斯·曼努埃尔·洛佩斯·奥布拉多表示，墨西哥已经投诉美国官员涉嫌资助反腐败组织，他说，该反腐败组织参与了反政府政治活动。他在周五的新闻发布会上宣布了这一消息，此后不久就与美国副总统卡马拉·哈里斯进行了网上会晤，而该议题显然没有出现在会议上。我是汤米·麦克纳尔，为您远程报道美国之音新闻。

1 vaccines   

疫苗，痘苗( vaccine的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His team are at the forefront of scientific research into vaccines. 他的小组处于疫苗科研的最前沿。
• The vaccines were kept cool in refrigerators. 疫苗放在冰箱中冷藏。

2 scrambling   

v.快速爬行( scramble的现在分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞

参考例句：

• Scrambling up her hair, she darted out of the house. 她匆忙扎起头发，冲出房去。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• She is scrambling eggs. 她正在炒蛋。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 whatsoever   

adv.（用于否定句中以加强语气）任何；pron.无论什么

参考例句：

• There's no reason whatsoever to turn down this suggestion.没有任何理由拒绝这个建议。
• All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you,do ye even so to them.你想别人对你怎样，你就怎样对人。

4 accounting   

n.会计，会计学，借贷对照表

参考例句：

• A job fell vacant in the accounting department.财会部出现了一个空缺。
• There's an accounting error in this entry.这笔账目里有差错。

5 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

6 brazen   

adj.厚脸皮的，无耻的，坚硬的

参考例句：

• The brazen woman laughed loudly at the judge who sentenced her.那无耻的女子冲着给她判刑的法官高声大笑。
• Some people prefer to brazen a thing out rather than admit defeat.有的人不愿承认失败，而是宁肯厚着脸皮干下去。

7 extort   

v.勒索，敲诈，强要

参考例句：

• The blackmailer tried to extort a large sum of money from him.勒索者企图向他勒索一大笔钱。
• They absolutely must not harm the people or extort money from them.严格禁止坑害勒索群众。

8 defiant   

adj.无礼的，挑战的

参考例句：

• With a last defiant gesture,they sang a revolutionary song as they were led away to prison.他们被带走投入监狱时，仍以最后的反抗姿态唱起了一支革命歌曲。
• He assumed a defiant attitude toward his employer.他对雇主采取挑衅的态度。

9 repercussions   

n.后果，反响( repercussion的名词复数 )；余波

参考例句：

• The collapse of the company will have repercussions for the whole industry. 这家公司的垮台将会给整个行业造成间接的负面影响。
• Human acts have repercussions far beyond the frontiers of the human world. 人类行为所产生的影响远远超出人类世界的范围。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 hacked   

生气

参考例句：

• I hacked the dead branches off. 我把枯树枝砍掉了。
• I'm really hacked off. 我真是很恼火。

11 confidential   

adj.秘（机）密的，表示信任的，担任机密工作的

参考例句：

• He refused to allow his secretary to handle confidential letters.他不让秘书处理机密文件。
• We have a confidential exchange of views.我们推心置腹地交换意见。

12 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为

13 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

14 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。