VOA标准英语2009年-US, S. Korean Government Web Sites Targete

South Korea has issued security warnings after the disruption of major Internet sites by an apparent cyber attack. Several U.S. Web sites have also been affected¹. Reports are emerging in South Korean media that intelligence officials suspect North Korea may have had a hand in the disruption.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted parliamentary intelligence committee lawmakers as saying North Korea may be behind the apparent cyber attack.

Wednesday marks the 15th anniversary of the death of the North's revered² first leader, Kim Il Sung. In past years, North Korea has used the occasion to show defiance³ or superiority toward the South.

South Korean authorities began to notice the Internet disruption Tuesday evening. By Wednesday, Korea Communication Commission official Lee Myung-su said the attack program had spread far and wide.

He says 18,000 personal computers have been infected by a malicious⁴ code.

At least 11 South Korean government sites have been either greatly slowed or made unavailable, including the sites for the presidential Blue House, the Defense⁵ Ministry⁶, and the lawmaking National Assembly. Several major South Korean banks and the leading Internet portal, Naver, were also affected.

U.S. sites have also been affected, including the Treasury⁷ Department, Secret Service, and Federal Trade Commission. The Web site of Voice of America news has been unavailable in South Korea for two days.

Computer experts describe this kind of attack as a "distributed denial of service." A computer virus spreads from one personal computer to another, directing data traffic from those computers to the targeted Web sites.

Shin Hwa-su, of the Korea Information Security Agency in Seoul, says the increased traffic overloads⁸ the target sites.

He says it is like 16-lanes worth of vehicles onto a four-lane highway. The road gets completely jammed and there is no movement.

Shin explains that any ordinary computer can turn into what programmers call a "zombie PC," if it does not have the proper software to protect it from viral attacks.

Kim Jae-gyu, chief of South Korea's Police Cyber Terror Center says a special task force has been formed to investigate the attack.

He says police have seized one computer that was sending out the malicious software, and have confirmed the program has targeted a total of 25 Web sites.

So far, South Korean authorities say the attack has been more of an inconvenience than a genuine security threat. They say no sensitive data appears to have been extracted from the targeted sites.

South Korea is one of the most wired nations in the world. Major governmental agencies like the Ministry of Defense find themselves under attack by hackers⁹ thousands of times on any given day. Parliamentary hearings on this particular round of attacks are scheduled for Thursday.

1 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

2 revered   

v.崇敬，尊崇，敬畏( revere的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• A number of institutions revered and respected in earlier times have become Aunt Sally for the present generation. 一些早年受到尊崇的惯例，现在已经成了这代人嘲弄的对象了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Chinese revered corn as a gift from heaven. 中国人将谷物奉为上天的恩赐。 来自辞典例句

3 defiance   

n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗

参考例句：

• He climbed the ladder in defiance of the warning.他无视警告爬上了那架梯子。
• He slammed the door in a spirit of defiance.他以挑衅性的态度把门砰地一下关上。

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 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。

6 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

7 treasury   

n.宝库；国库，金库；文库

参考例句：

• The Treasury was opposed in principle to the proposals.财政部原则上反对这些提案。
• This book is a treasury of useful information.这本书是有价值的信息宝库。

8 overloads   

使负担太重( overload的第三人称单数 )； 使超载； 使过载； 给…增加负担

参考例句：

• Given these overloads, we can see the working of the rules above. 对于给定的这些重载，我们可以看看上述规则的工作方式。
• The numerous overloads for each data access method have been reduced. 每一个数据访问方法重载的数量被减少了。

9 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