Don’t talk: your cell phone may be eavesdropping. Thanks to recent developments in "spy phone" software, a do-it-yourself spook

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问题     Don’t talk: your cell phone may be eavesdropping. Thanks to recent developments in "spy phone" software, a do-it-yourself spook can now wirelessly transfer a wiretapping program to any mobile phone. The programs are inexpensive, and the transfer requires no special skill. The would-be spy needs to get his hands on your phone to press keys authorizing thedownload,but ittakes just a few minutes—about the time needed to download a ringtone.
    This new generation of user-friendly spy-phone software has become widely available in the last year—and it confers stunning powers. The latest programs can silently turn on handset microphones even when no call is being made, allowing a spy to listen to voices in a room halfway around the world. Targets are none the wiser neither call logs nor phone bills show records of the secretly transmitted data.
    More than 200 companies sell spy-phone software online, at prices as low as $50. Vendors are loath to release sales figures. But some experts claim that a surprising number of people carry a mobile that has been compromised, usually by a spouse, lover, parent or co-worker. Many employees, experts say, hope to discover a supervisor’s dishonest dealings and tip off the top boss anonymously. Max Maiellaro, head of Agata Christie Investigation, a private-investigation firm in Milan, estimates that 3 percent of mobiles in France and Germany are tapped, and about 5 percent or so in Greece, Italy, Romania and Spain. James Atkinson, a spy-phone expert at Granite Island Group, a security consultancy in Gloucester, Massachusetts, puts the number of tapped phones in the U.S. at 3 percent. Even if these numbers are inflated, clearly many otherwise law-abiding citizens are willing to break wiretapping laws.
    Spyware thrives on iPhones, BlackBerrys and other smart phones because they have ample processing power. In the United States, the spread of GSM networks, which are more vulnerable than older technologies, has also enlarged the pool of potential victims. Spyware being developed for law-enforcement agencies will accompany a text message and automatically install itself in the victim’s phone when the message is opened, according to an Italian developer who declined to be identified. One worry is that the software will find its way into the hands of criminals.
    The current embarrassment is partly the result of decisions by Apple, Microsoft and Research In Motion (producer of the BlackBerry) to open their phones to outside application-software developers, which created the opening for spyware. Antivirus and security programs developed for computers require too much processing power, even for smart phones. Although security programs are available for phones, by and large users haven’t given the threat much thought. If the spying keeps spreading, that may change soon.
According to Paragraph 4, Spyware

选项 A、increases the processing power of iPhones.
B、enlarges the pool of potential victims.
C、is developed by law-enforcement agencies.
D、might serve the devil.

答案D

解析 事实细节题。根据题干定位在第四段。该段末句提到监听软件可能会落人犯罪分子之手,这一点很令人担忧,故选D项。iPhone本身具有强大的处理功能,而非如A项中所述的是监听软件提高了其处理能力;此外该段中提到是GSM网络的普及使得越来越多的人面临被监听的潜在威胁,而非监听软件造成,B项显然张冠李戴;C项中则把“为执法机构研发”曲解成了“由执法机构研发”。
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