Here you have, yet another article: here some investigators found that among the devices used by hackers in an attack there was… a fridge. Yes that’s right. Here is an article (see the link below for the original) about what happened.
Warning: the topic is very interesting, but the article is very advanced and has incredible quantities of vocabulary…
Hacked by your Fridge? When the Internet of Things bites back
To bite back: to defend yourself by biting, like a dog, when you have been bitten first.
Rush: impuse to do things quickly, often with the risk of making mistakes.
Trepidation: being nervous or worried about something.
Fearful of: feeling fear that something will happen or appear.
well past its “best before” date: the best before date is the recommended date to consume some products. If it is “well past” it is probably dangerous to consume that product.
scupper: to ruin
Only last month: “Only” here is used as “just” to reinforce how recent this happened.
Web-enabled: Devices that can connect to the web.
It led to: to lead/led/led. To give directions, guide or give someone example. also to introduce the consequences of some action. Here the funny headlines are a consequence of the hacker attack. Also, a person who leads is a leader.
to belie: to contradict and invalidate. e.g. What the police found out belies what the criminal declared in court.
Ever more: constantly increasing quantities
heating ventilation contractor: a contractor is a supplier that provides you some services, like building or maintenance. And you have a contract with them.
Alleged: not necessarily true or false but people think so. The alleged thief (we don’t know if he was the thief or not).
Point of sale terminals. A point of sale is a place were things are effectively (* check second meaning) sold, usually with machines that can manage money or credit cards. Those machines are called terminals nowadays because they are connected to a central computer.
labs: places where scientists work making experiments.
insulin pumps: devices that supply insulin to patients, usually fixed inside their bodies.
pacemakers: devices that help the heart regulate its rhythm in patients who have a history of cardiac arrest.
smart meter: devices that measure your utility consumption (e.g. water, electricity, natural gas) and send the information wirelessly to the supplier. Therefore they don’t need to send anyone to read the meter regularly.
home area network: the area and electronic devices connected to a local area network (LAN) in a house.
remote diagnostics: using electronic devices to diagnose medical conditions without going to a hospital.
Bring your own device (BYOD): Option some companies and schools choose, where they let workers or students use their own hardware (laptops, tablets…) for work or to attend classes.
Bring Your Own Device
thirty fold: Thirty times: if you multiply something by a factor of thirty, you make it thirty fold.
a trillion dollars: the number ONE followed by twelve zeros. A spanish billion. Compare:
1,000,000 = a million
1,000,000,000 = a billion (USA); a thousand million (Spain)
1,000,000,000,000 = a trillion (USA); a billion (Spain)
Excited: anticipating or feeling something intensely. (sexual excitement is called arousal and the verb is to arouse/to be aroused).
to field: to deal with something, usually a problem or some work. (= to address a problem)
afterthought: something added, casually, after something has been said and finished.
e.g. He signed the contract and as an afterthought he said: Maybe I should have read the contract more carefully, but what’s done is done.
albeit: however
nation-state: a state where all citizens are supposed to have a feeling of belonging to the same nationality. e.g. France
to drive: to lead, to make something or someone move in a specific direction. In this case crime motivated by the government of a country.
toe-hold: a very minimal contact or support point. This expression takes its meaning from the sport of climbing, where you use your feet – and your toes, if you are barefoot – and you hold to the mountain wall with your hands and your feet. Usually foothold is the word used. In contrast toe-hold means that the position is very weak and unstable.
Note: toes are the fingers in your feet. In your hands in contrast, we have eight fingers and two thumbs (the big, thick opposable fingers).
to counter: to compensate for something, for example by defending yourself from an attack.
to tamper: to manipulate something in an inappropriate manner, by someone who doesn’t know how to do it or to make it stop working properly.
to ensure: to make sure. (contrast: to insure: to sign a contract with an insurance company to protect people or goods; to assure: to make someone feel sure about something with words or evidence.
Firewall: a protective system in computer networks. Also a wall in a building which will prevent the spread of a fire.
To run: to operate, to make something work. Often used with computer sofware.
Malware: a kind of computer software whih is designed to attack or damage computers an/or networks.
To host: a term used when talking about computer servers, to speak about the information or software that is stored in it. The collocation “host server” is common.
to host also means: to let someone stay in your house or to organize an event, such as a party, in your own house. People attending a party are the guests. A TV host is a TV presenter.
To patch: to fix a hole by using a piece of material that is applied on the hole to cover it. Traditionally in clothes.
Surprised at: surprised in a “negative way”.
idle: not working, but ready to do so, like the engine of a car at a traffic lights
switched off: completely disconnected.
grammar point: it is quite common to find prepositions at the end of a sentence in English. Usually there is some kind of complement that is before in the sentence. For example here the object of “talk back to” is “how many different internet sites”.
Grammar point: in contrast with Spanish, in English complements to a noun go before it in most ocasions. Moreover, those complements introduced in Spanish by “de” are also moved to the front, and they do not need any preposition: a noun in English can be modified by another noun. Here we have a noun “model” modified by a combination of a noun and two adjectives which modify it.