8th form Units 5-6

READING

Read the blog. Decide if each sentence is true (T) or false (F).

Hacking

Hacking has been in the news a lot recently, and is a growing problem all over the world. But did you know that there are different types of hackers out there, with different aims? At first, I thought that these people were alljust criminals trying to make money. I thought that they were the people who are responsible for those nasty emails I get in my inbox or for stealing money from people's bank accounts.

But then I did some research on the internet. I found out that there are different types of hackers, and each one has different reasons for hacking. Here is what I found out about some ofthe different types of hackers:

White Hat Hacker

This type of hacker is a professional hacker who works for companies and governments. These hackers are allowed to use their skills to hack computer systems so that the company or government can repair any weaknesses in its own system before another hacker tries to enter the system for criminal reasons.

Black Hat Hacker

This is the type of hacker that you usually read about in news stories. These hackers enter computer systems illegally to steal companies or people's money and information. They also attack computer systems so that they stop working, and send spam emails.

Grey Hat Hacker

This type of hacker is between a White Hat Hacker and a Black Hat Hacker. Sometimes, these hackers find weaknesses in a computer system and repair it for the company for free. Other times they find the weaknesses and then tell the company about them and offer to repair them for cash.

Hacktivists

These people are different from the other types of hackers. They don't hack to make money or to find weaknesses in computer systems, but instead they have social or political reasons for hacking. They usually enter the computer systems of big companies and governments to steal their information.

So now you know that not all hackers are the same. Did any of this surprise you? Leave a comment, and tell me what you think!

1 At first the author didn't know that there were different types of hackers.

2 White Hat Hackers are criminals.

3 Black Hat Hackers help companies and governments to fix their computer systems.

4 Grey Hat Hackers always ask for money to fix weaknesses in computer systems.

5 Hacktivists don't have the same reasons for hacking as the other types of hackers.

6 Companies and governments pay hacktivists to steal information for them.

Listen to a teacher introducing a class project. What are the students going to talk about?

Listen to another student, Meg, talking about her project. Complete the text with one word in each space.

Well, I actually took part in a ‘clean-up (1) ________ beach’ day. There was a big (2) ____ of people and we all (3) ___________ at the bus stop in front of the beach. There was a man who (4) ______________ us what to do. We had big (5) ___________ bags and we collected any (6) __________ that we found. We were in different (7) ____________ and we worked together. It was a really (8) __________ day but it’s a pity people (9) ___________ all this rubbish. It’s easy to put it in the (10) ______________ !