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104 Big brother is watching you 08 LANGUAGE SKILLS EXPLORE EXTRAS Explore reading: The hackersʼ new frontiers Which of these do you think should be allowed? Say why or why not, and under what circumstances. sPEaKIng 31 Which opinions do you agree with? 1 Authors put a lot of work and knowledge into writing a book. In effect, photocopying a book is stealing money from the person who wrote it. 2 The film and music industries make such huge profits that they can easily afford to lose royalties from people making illegal copies. 3 Illegal downloading actually helps unknown musicians: it enables more people to get to know their work, so they attract bigger audiences to their concerts. Discuss these questions. 1 How strictly is copyright enforced in Austria? 2 What are the dangers of, for example, illegal downloading in Austria? 3 Are you likely to get caught if you download something illegally? a 32 b 1 Downloading films from the internet. 2 File-sharing music on the internet. 3 Copying scientific or academic articles. 4 Selling pirate editions of published books. Read the text about new opportunities for hackers. First decide whether the statements (1–7) are true (T) or false (F) and put a cross (  ) in the correct box. Then identify the sentence in the text which supports your decision. Write the first four words of this sentence in the space provided. There may be more than one correct answer; write down only one. The first one (0) has been done for you. 33 The hackers’ new frontiers Everyone has heard of identity theft and credit card abuse on the internet. Wikileaks has been in the headlines for several years and, more recently, two young Americans made headlines when they first hacked then leaked sensitive official data.  If we are to believe computer experts, hackers will soon be turning to new, even more dangerous territories.  Imagine driving at high speed when your car suddenly becomes unmanoeuverable: the steering wheel doesn’t respond and the brakes don’t function, or the car unexpectedly comes to a halt causing an accident in which dozens of people are injured. Now imagine that all this had absolutely nothing to do with you, but the car had been taken over by hackers.  As was recently demonstrated at a computer security conference in Las Vegas, vehicle hacks can completely disable a driver’s ability to control a fast-moving car. At present, typically 10 to 14 little computers are built into modern cars; once one of them is compromised, safety goes out the window. The future looks even more dangerous. As cars are becoming more computerised, say with internet access and other electronic features, they will become even easier targets.  If the thought of increasingly hackable cars is alarming, security experts add to everyone’s paranoia by warning that we should be even more concerned about our homes. The burglars of the future will no longer use files and crowbars but Wi-Fi scanners and laptops. Wi-Fi-enabled front door locks that can be opened and closed with a smartphone may be at the cutting edge of wireless home security, but they are not unhackable; nothing is, according to experts.  Hackers could for instance turn webcams and television sets against users andmonitor everything they are doing or saying. The next generation of light bulbs that is supposed to be connected to the internet could be manipulated, as could be digital fridges and toilets. Your food might go bad without you knowing why, and if a computer-savvy friend of yours wants to play a practical joke on you, your Bluetooth-enabled toilet may suddenly spray water up rather than down.  However, the greatest fears are related to smartphones. At another security conference in Las Vegas, conference participants were shown how easy it is to take over Android smartphones Nur zu P üfzwecken – Eige tum des Verlags öbv