VOA标准英语2010年-Pentagon Faces Massive Cyber Threats

The commander of the new U.S. Cyber Command, Army General Keith Alexander, said the Pentagon's vast computer system is probed by potential enemies a quarter-of-a-million times every hour and needs to be protected, especially in a time of war. Alexander testified Thursday before a U.S. Congressional panel.

Within the U.S. Department of Defense¹, there are some 15,000 different computer networks, including 7 million computing² devices on hundreds of military installations around the world.

General Alexander told members of the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee that those computer systems are at risk.

"We face severe threats. Those threats to our national security in my opinion are real. It is occupying much of our time and attention. At the unclassified level, we have stated that we see probes and scans to our networks that come up on the order of 250,000 times an hour," said Alexander.

Recently, the Defense Department revealed new details about a major cyber attack in 2008 that allowed hackers³ to transfer data to servers under foreign control. Defense officials say that intrusion served as a wakeup call. The following year, Cyber Command was created to defend the Pentagon's computer networks.

General Alexander, who also serves as the director of the National Security Agency, said that since the inception⁴ of the Internet, the key problems have been activity by hackers, and exploitation of private and sensitive information.

"That is where someone comes in and takes information from your computer, steals your credit card number, takes money out of your account. We have seen that go on and that endures, and it is perhaps the most significant form of the threat that we see today - not just stealing our intellectual property, but also our secrets and other parts of our networks," said Alexander.

Alexander warned that deterring⁵ enemies in the cyber world will not be easy and could take years to achieve. He said the government needs to work with private industry to ensure that the nation's critical infrastructure⁶ is protected.

"What concerns me the most is destructive attacks that are coming. We are concerned that those are the next things that we will see. And those are things that can destroy equipment, so it is not something that you recover from by just stopping the traffic. It is something that breaks a computer or another automated⁷ device," said Alexander.

Alexander said that if such damage occurred in a war zone, the Pentagon's command and control systems would suffer.

He said the Pentagon has sent an expeditionary cyber support team to Afghanistan to protect computer networks and programs being used in the fight against the Taliban and al-Qaida.
 

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 computing   

n.计算

参考例句：

• to work in computing 从事信息处理
• Back in the dark ages of computing, in about 1980, they started a software company. 早在计算机尚未普及的时代（约1980年），他们就创办了软件公司。

3 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

4 inception   

n.开端，开始，取得学位

参考例句：

• The programme has been successful since its inception.这个方案自开始实施以来一直卓有成效。
• Julia's worked for that company from its inception.自从那家公司开办以来，朱莉娅一直在那儿工作。

5 deterring   

v.阻止，制止( deter的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• However, investors say are a number of issues deterring business. 然而，投资者表示，有很多问题让他们却步。 来自互联网
• It's an effective way of deterring potential does online, the logic goes. 逻辑上这是抑制潜在线上威胁的有效方法。 来自互联网

6 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

7 automated   

a.自动化的

参考例句：

• The entire manufacturing process has been automated. 整个生产过程已自动化。
• Automated Highway System (AHS) is recently regarded as one subsystem of Intelligent Transport System (ITS). 近年来自动公路系统(Automated Highway System,AHS)，作为智能运输系统的子系统之一越来越受到重视。