PBS高端访谈:报道称俄罗斯黑客盗取美国国家安全局数据

 　　There is new information today about Russia obtaining highly classified information about how the U.S. military protects its computer networks and how it conducts electronic spying.

　　Hari Sreenivasan has that story.

　　The Wall Street Journal reports on a web of breaches¹.

　　First, classified material was stolen from the National Security Agency by a contractor².

　　His computer was then hacked⁴, and Russia took the sensitive data.

　　The article doesn't say who the contractor was, but that he used Kaspersky Lab antivirus software, which is believed to be compromised by Russian intelligence.

　　For more on all of this, we turn to Shane Harris, who broke the story, covering national security and intelligence issues for The Wall Street Journal.

　　Shane, what do we know that was compromised? What do the Russians have?

　　Well, what we are told this is that was information that describes or deals with offensive and defensive⁵ computer network operations at NSA,

　　so, basically the tools and techniques, the codes that the NSA would use to hack³ into foreign computer systems

　　and the tools and techniques they use to protect computer networks inside the United States.

　　This is very critical information that goes to what intelligence agencies call sources and methods,

　　and it's the kind of thing that is most jealously guarded inside the NSA and is extremely classified.

　　And the Kaspersky Lab software, that wasn't at his desktop⁶ at the NSA. This was at his home.

　　No. What happened was the contractor removed this classified information unauthorized from his workplace and took it home, we are told,

　　to work on it there, is what authorities believe, and loaded it on to a personal computer.

　　And that computer was running the Kaspersky antivirus product. This is a commercially available antivirus product.

　　Probably many watching this tonight may have it on their own home computers.

　　And what authorities believe is that that system was then used to alert hackers⁷ in Russia to the files that were on his machine, which were then removed from it by Russia.

　　So the software that is scanning his computer, looking for sensitive files, sends a message to Russia saying,

　　hey, here is a sensitive file, and since they have some sort of a backdoor, they can access it?

　　Well, there is a sequence here that we're still not entirely⁸ sure, but, essentially⁹, yes, this is the idea,

　　that it alerts people back in Russia, who are then able to take advantage,

　　knowing what they know, from the software, then home in on this individual's computer and obtain this information.

　　Now, it is important to say that Kaspersky says they do not provide any kind of access that is unauthorized or illegal,

　　and they do not participate in computer operations of this nature, cyber-spying on behalf of governments.

　　So there still is some question about the sequence of events.

　　But what officials have concluded is that, if not for this Kaspersky product, they do not believe that this information would have been obtained.

　　Now, just a couple of weeks ago, we had members of the Intelligence Committees -- members of intelligence community sitting in front of the Senate panel.

　　And when they were asked whether or not they would put this kind of software on their own computers, they unanimously said no.

　　And it looks like the government's already taking steps to try to make sure that this software is not available to government agencies, right?

　　That's right. In fact, last month, the Homeland Security Department issued a directive

　　prohibiting all federal departments and agencies in the U.S. government from either buying these products and services from Kaspersky or using them.

　　And they were told to get rid of them if they were using them.

　　That is an extraordinary measure for the government to take. This is a product that is sold in America.

　　It has been sold, been sold in big box stores. So that really underscored the extent to which officials,

　　we're told, believed that this tool was being used to conduct espionage¹⁰ inside the United States.

　　And let's talk a little bit about the timeline. When did this hack happen,

　　I mean, given the context of all that we're investigating about Russia and their influence on the elections?

　　What we know so far is that the incident itself occurred in 2015, but it wasn't discovered until the spring of 2016.

　　So this would be before the election campaign really kicked off in earnest.

　　But what is interesting about that spring 2016 period is that is when intelligence agencies

　　now say that they were starting to detect the first signs of Russia beginning to interfere¹¹ in the U.S. elections.

　　Now, we don't know that there is a direct line between what was going on with this contractor and that activity,

　　but it does appear that there may have to some degree been coincident,

　　and that the activity against the contractor may have even preceded the Russian interference in the elections,

　　and certainly preceded the period before which the U.S. government really became more alert to that.

　　All right, Shane Harris of The Wall Street Journal, thanks so much. Thank you. undefined

1 breaches   

破坏( breach的名词复数 )； 破裂； 缺口； 违背

参考例句：

• He imposed heavy penalties for breaches of oath or pledges. 他对违反誓言和保证的行为给予严厉的惩罚。
• This renders all breaches of morality before marriage very uncommon. 这样一来，婚前败坏道德的事就少见了。

2 contractor   

n.订约人，承包人，收缩肌

参考例句：

• The Tokyo contractor was asked to kick $ 6000 back as commission.那个东京的承包商被要求退还6000美元作为佣金。
• The style of house the contractor builds depends partly on the lay of the land.承包商所建房屋的式样，有几分要看地势而定。

3 hack   

n.劈，砍，出租马车；v.劈，砍，干咳

参考例句：

• He made a hack at the log.他朝圆木上砍了一下。
• Early settlers had to hack out a clearing in the forest where they could grow crops.早期移民不得不在森林里劈出空地种庄稼。

4 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。

5 defensive   

adj.防御的；防卫的；防守的

参考例句：

• Their questions about the money put her on the defensive.他们问到钱的问题，使她警觉起来。
• The Government hastily organized defensive measures against the raids.政府急忙布置了防卫措施抵御空袭。

6 desktop   

n.桌面管理系统程序；台式

参考例句：

• My computer is a desktop computer of excellent quality.我的计算机是品质卓越的台式计算机。
• Do you know which one is better,a laptop or a desktop?你知道哪一种更好，笔记本还是台式机？

7 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

8 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

9 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

10 espionage   

n.间谍行为，谍报活动

参考例句：

• The authorities have arrested several people suspected of espionage.官方已经逮捕了几个涉嫌从事间谍活动的人。
• Neither was there any hint of espionage in Hanley's early life.汉利的早期生活也毫无进行间谍活动的迹象。

11 interfere   

v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰

参考例句：

• If we interfere, it may do more harm than good.如果我们干预的话，可能弊多利少。
• When others interfere in the affair,it always makes troubles. 别人一卷入这一事件，棘手的事情就来了。