主题：不安全的互联网络

The identity thieves are out there — and someone could be spying on you. Why your privacy on the net is at risk, and what you can do. 　　My colleague Joel Stein let drop a while back that he was working on a book proposal. I found it a bit frustrating that he wouldn't tell me the topic. Joel had been traveling a lot lately too — to Iceland to interview Bjork; to Hollywood for the Oscars — but he was stingy with details. Where was he going? Whom was he hanging with, and how much money was he spending? I've also wondered what kind of websites he surfs. And, O.K., I wouldn't mind reading his e-mail. 　　我的同事约耳·斯泰恩不久前无意中告诉我他正忙着做一个出版计划。我心里觉得有点不舒服，因为他没有告诉我出版图书的主题。最近，约耳也频繁外出——一会去冰岛采访比约克，一会又到好莱坞参加奥斯卡颁奖——但他对详细的经过守口如瓶。他到了什么地方？他和谁泡在一起？他花了多少钱？我也很想知道他常去哪些网站。好吧，我并不介意看看他的电子邮件。 　　So I did. 　于是我这样做了。 　　Joel went out of town recently, which allowed me to duck into his office and install spying software on his hard drive. You can buy commercial spyware these days, but I used VNC, which can be downloaded for free. VNC was designed to help people link their own computers. But it also worked as a cheap and easy way for me to keep tabs on Joel. Soon after loading VNC onto my computer, I was rifling through Joel's hard drive. 　　最近，约耳有事离开了镇子，这给了我一个机会，让我能潜入他的办公室，在他的机器硬盘上安装了一个监视软件。如今，你能够买到商业监视软件，但我用的是VNC， 你可以免费从网上下载。VNC 是为了帮助人们联接自己的多台计算机而设计的，但对我来说，它也是用来监视约耳的一种方便又便宜的工具。然后，我迅速把VNC 下载到我的计算机上，这样，我就可以“翻查”约耳的硬盘了。 　　That book proposal? With a few mouse clicks, it appeared on Joel's screen — and on mine. It was also easy to pore over his expense reports, checking out whom he took to dinner in L.A., and what he thinks passes for a legitimate expense. 　　那个出版计划？只要点几下鼠标，它就出现在约耳的电脑屏幕上——同时也出现在我的屏幕上。查看其他资料也很容易，比如他的支出报告，他在洛杉矶和谁共进晚餐，还有那些他认为是合理支出的开销。 　　Then I — or should I say Joel? — hit the Internet. The great thing about controlling another person's computer is you can surf the Web as if you were him or her. When you go to a site, his or her IP address — a kind of digital fingerprint — is the one that gets left behind, not yours. 　　接下来，我——我是不是应该说是约耳——点击了互联网。控制另外一个人电脑的奇妙之处在于：你能够冒他/她的名在网上冲浪。当你进入一个站点时，留下的是他/她的IP 地址——这是一种类似数字指纹的东西——而不是你的。　　I was going to mess with Joel. Stop by a few investing message boards, and have him break securities law by pumping stocks.But in an effort to keep Joel —O.K., both of us — out of jail. 　　我打算给约耳添些麻烦。我访问了几个投资留言板。我通过大量投股让约耳违反了有价证券法规。但我努力使约耳——当然，是使我们两个人——不会身陷牢狱。 　　When Joel returned, I could look over his shoulder as he surfed the Net. It was weird but oddly riveting to see his cursor click, click, click its way across my screen. But in the end, there were no busty babes, no Catholic school girls looking for trouble. He actually spent most of his time on CNN.com. 　　约耳回来的时候，当他上网时我仍然能窥探到他的资料。看着他的鼠标指针在我的屏幕上滴答、滴答、滴答地点击，这真是一种不可思议而又古怪的感觉。但最后的结果是，并没有什么大胸脯的姑娘，也没有什么惹火上身的天主教学校女生。实际上，他的大多数时间都花在浏览CNN网站上。 　　Then he started opening his e-mail. The first was from our boss, about Joel's next column. Another was from Joel's girlfriend's brother asking Joel to score free concert tickets. 　　然后，他开始打开电子信箱。第一封信是我们的老板发来的，内容是关于约耳的下一个专栏。另一封信是约耳女朋友的弟弟发来的，内容是让约耳搞到免费的音乐会门票。 　　I also had Joel's Social Security number, the keys to the kingdom. Those digits would be enough on some websites to get me a driver's license in his name — and to start a full-scale identity theft. Before long, I could be ruining his credit rating, draining his bank accounts. 　　我也得到了约耳的社会安全号码，这可是通往私人王国的钥匙。在一些网站上，这些数字完全可以让我得到一个以约耳名字申请的驾驶执照——并且可以做一个完完全全的身份窃贼。不久，我就可以毁坏他的信用度，取空他的银行帐户。 　　Too bad my editors, darn them, insisted that I tell Joel what I was doing. Not that it would have been difficult to really spy on Joel at his home computer. I could have sent him spyware wrapped in an e-greeting card, programmed to install itself when he opened the card. He'd never know. 　　我的编辑们实在太差劲了，这些该死的家伙，坚持让我告诉约耳我所做的一切。真的要想在约耳家里的计算机上监视他并不是那么困难。我可以发给他带有监视程序的电子贺卡，他打开贺卡的时候程序会自动安装。他不会知道。 　　It's been two years since Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy delivered his famous warning: "You have zero privacy [on the Internet] anyway. Get over it." Privacy advocates resisted that pessimistic assessment at the time. But since then, hardly a week goes by without a news story suggesting McNealy was on to something. 　　两年前Sun Microsystems 公司的CEO 史考特·麦克尼利发表了他著名的警告：“总之，（在互联网上）你没有隐私。忘记它吧。”当时，隐私权的拥护者们反对这种悲观的评价。但自那时以来，几乎每一个星期都会有一些新的消息向我们暗示：麦克尼利言中了一些事情。 VNC: Virtual Network Computing，远程遥控程序，它可以安装在Windows中而让使用者在世界各地远端遥控自己的电脑。

呵呵，大家看看。