(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
The top U.S. and Iranian diplomats have been holding almost weekly meetings in an effort to finish an agreement on nuclear weapons. However, a website called The Intercept says that a "cyber war," attacks against computer networks, is taking place behind the scenes. The website takes some of its information from secret U.S. government documents made public by Edward Snowden. It published details of a U.S. National Security Agency paper, written two years ago. The NSA paper calls for a stronger U.S. answer to Iran's improved cyber warfare abilities.
The report says Iran learned from a virus called Stuxnet that was placed into its nuclear program. The virus allegedly was put there by U.S. and Israeli intelligence services in 2012.
David Stupples of City University, London is a cyber-warfare expert. He says the incident may have shown Iranian leaders the value of cyber warfare, compared to controversial, costly and dangerous nuclear weapons.
Iran has "now realized they have a much stronger weapon at hand," Mr. Stupples said. He added that Iran "can continually attack and continually get payoffs from their activities quite cheaply."
A basic cyberattack means a computer attacker closes down a website. Real problems, however, result when cyberattacks steal or destroy data. That is what happened in the attack on Sony Pictures last year, reportedly by North Korea.
A year ago, the head of the NSA, Admiral Mike Rogers, told Congress that cyber warfare is here to stay. "Clearly, cyber will be an element of almost any crisis we are going to see in the future," said Admiral Rogers. He added that he believes cyber warfare was used in Ukraine, Syria and Georgia. "It increasingly is becoming a norm," he said.
Cyberattacks are inexpensive, secret, and can be denied. Those are some of the reasons that could make them more appealing to terrorists and governments, instead of using conventional or nuclear weapons.
I'm Anne Ball.
词汇解释
1.denial n. 否认；拒绝；节制；背弃
It seems clear that despite official denials, differences of opinion lay behind the ambassador's decision to quit.
很清楚，尽管官方否认，人们对大使决定辞职还是有不同看法。
2.appealing adj. 吸引人的；动人的；引起兴趣的；恳求似的 v. 恳求（appeal的ing形式）；将…上诉
There was a sense of humour to what he did that I found very appealing.
他所做的带有一种我发现很迷人的幽默感。
内容解析
1.However, a website called The Intercept says that a "cyber war," attacks against computer networks, is taking place behind the scenes.
behind the scenes 在幕后；秘密地
Cookery Editor Moyra Fraser takes you behind the scenes.
烹调专栏主笔莫伊拉·弗雷泽会带您了解幕后的故事。
It'san exciting opportunity to learn what goes on behind the scenes.
可以有机会了解幕后的工作，令人非常兴奋。
参考译文
美国和伊朗高级外交官几乎每周都举行会议，希望达成核武器协议。但一个名叫Intercept的网站称，一场袭击计算机网络的“网络战”正在幕后打响。该网站上的部分信息来自爱德华·斯诺登曝光的美国政府机密文件，还公布了两年前美国国安局的一份文件，美国国安局呼吁美国对伊朗加强的网络战能力做出更强力应对。
报告称伊朗了解到一个被嵌入其核项目的病毒，这个名叫Stuxnet的病毒是美国和以色列情报机构2012年借以攻击伊朗的。
伦敦城市学院的戴维·斯塔普斯是位网络战专家，他说那次事件可能让伊朗领导人明白了与昂贵、有争议且非常致命的核武器相比，网络战能力有其自己的价值。
伊朗“现在意识到他们手中拥有更强大的武器，且能以低廉的成本继续发动袭击且从其活动中获得收益。”
普通网络攻击是指计算机攻击者关闭一家网站，但真正的问题是网络攻击盗窃或毁掉数据，正如去年索尼影业遭遇的那样，据悉这是朝鲜所为。
一年前，美国国安局新局长罗杰斯上将告诉国会，网络战争还将继续。“很显然，网络将成为未来几乎任何危机的组成部分，过去已经发生过”，他相信今天在乌克兰也能看到，我们在叙利亚和格鲁吉亚也见过，这个问题越发成为常态。
网络攻击成本低、形式隐秘、可以否认，且通常为公众所不知，与常规或核武器相比，这就使得网络攻击可能对恐怖分子和各国政府更具吸引力。
我是安妮·博尔。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
