Questões de Inglês

Read the following text in order to answer QUESTION.

Cyberattacks are reshaping modern warfare. How can countries and companies protect themselves?

    Cybersecurity has become a top priority for governments, businesses and critical infrastructure operators, especially since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine which has been marked by sophisticated cyber attacks.

    Cyberattacks on governmental websites were seen more recently in Taiwan when it experienced intermittent outages just before US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrived in the country earlier this month amid sharp warnings from China before the visit. But cyberattacks do not just target state websites, they also hit critical infrastructure and even healthcare providers as well as small businesses.

Russia exploits grey space

    The first is due to Russia’s increased cyber attacks on Ukraine and other countries, which have been ongoing for several “years and are called “grey space operations”.

    “We saw a significant increase in cyberattacks in the last three years, particularly as we were putting sanctions and pressure on Russia. Russia is exploiting the grey space,” said Jonathan Reiber, who is now Vice President of Cybersecurity and Policy at the security platform AttackIQ, warning that companies and governments should prepare especially for that.

    Another reason for the growing number of cyberattacks, said Reiber, is because there has been a massive increase in the commodification of ransomware as a service, meaning it is a lot easier for criminals to conduct ransomware attacks that are more highly effective.

    So how can governments and companies protect themselves?

    With regards to governments, Reiber advises them to prepare for contingencies with countries that could conduct a significant attack against their infrastructure.

How to prepare against cyberattacks

    Reiber said to build a strong cyber defence, you should not focus on the technology but start with “a certain kind of mindset, you have to assume that you're going to be breached in cyberspace”.

    space”. The next step is to then secure the most essential data and then have the right team to help build a cyber defence system and strategy.

   After that, he said you must rigorously and constantly test your cybersecurity software to ensure it works. “The analogy I like to use is like if you build the best

     navy in the world and you let it sit in port and you never took it out over a year how would you expect it to perform? That's essentially the state of cybersecurity,” he said.

    To avert that situation, Reiber said the key is to invest in your cyber team, prepare the technologies, develop a strategy and test it yourself.

Available at: https://www.euronews.com/next/2022/08/11/cyberattacksare-reshaping-modern-warfare-how-can-countries-and-companiesprotect-themselv (Adapted)

Read the following cartoon in order to answer QUESTION.

Read the following cartoon in order to answer QUESTION.

Read the following text in order to answer QUESTION.

Remarkable Intelligence: Octopus and Human Brains Share the Same “Jumping Genes”

An exceptional organism with an extremely complex brain and cognitive abilities makes the octopus very unique among invertebrates. The neural and cognitive complexity of these animals could originate from a molecular analogy with the human brain, as discovered by a research paper that was recently published in BMC Biology and coordinated by Remo Sanges from Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA) of Trieste and by Graziano Fiorito from Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn of Naples.

    This research shows that the same ‘jumping genes’ are active both in the human brain and in the brain of two species, Octopus vulgaris, the common octopus, and Octopus bimaculoides, the Californian octopus. A discovery that could help us understand the secret of the intelligence of these remarkable organisms.

    Sequencing the human genome revealed as early as 2001 that over 45% of it is composed of sequences called transposons, so-called ‘jumping genes’ that, through molecular copy-and-paste or cut-and-paste mechanisms, can ‘move’ from one point to another of an individual’s genome, shuffling or duplicating.

    In most cases, these mobile elements remain silent: they have no visible effects and have lost their ability to move.

    Among these mobile elements, the most relevant are those belonging to the so-called LINE (Long Interspersed Nuclear Elements) family, found in a hundred copies in the human genome and still potentially active. It has been traditionally though that LINEs’ activity was just a vestige of the past, a remnant of the evolutionary processes that involved these mobile elements, but in recent years new evidence emerged showing that their activity is finely regulated in the brain. There are many scientists who believe that LINE transposons are associated with cognitive abilities such as learning and memory: they are particularly active in the hippocampus, the most important structure of our brain for the neural control of learning processes.

    The octopus’ genome, like ours, is rich in ‘jumping genes’, most of which are inactive. Focusing on the transposons still capable of copy-and-paste, the researchers identified an element of the LINE family in parts of the brain crucial for the cognitive abilities of these animals.

   “The discovery of an element of the LINE family, active in the brain of the two octopuses species, is very significant because it adds support to the idea that these elements have a specific function that goes beyond copy-and-paste,” explains Remo Sanges, director of the Computational Genomics laboratory at SISSA.

    “I literally jumped on the chair when, under the microscope, I saw a very strong signal of activity of this element in the vertical lobe, the structure of the brain which in the octopus is the seat of learning and cognitive abilities, just like the hippocampus in humans,” tells Giovanna Ponte from Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn.

    “The brain of the octopus is functionally analogous in many of its characteristics to that of mammals,” says Graziano Fiorito, director of the Department of Biology and Evolution of Marine Organisms of the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn. “For this reason, also, the identified LINE element represents a very interesting candidate to study to improve our knowledge on the evolution of intelligence.”.

  Available at: https://scitechdaily.com/remarkable-intelligence-octopusand-human-brains-share-the-same-jumping-genes/ (Adapted)

TEXTO

In the Amazon rainforest, an indigenous tribe fights for survival

  09 August 2022

    Deep in the Amazon rainforest, an indigenous tribe that has remained relatively isolated from the outside world is waging a battle for its survival.

    For centuries, the Yanomami have inhabited a vast area of pristine forest and large, meandering rivers on the border between Brazil and Venezuela, living off fishing, hunting and fruit gathering.

    Today, the Yanomami – who number about 29,000 – say they are at serious risk of losing their lands, culture and traditional way of life. The lust for gold and other valuable minerals that lay beneath their ancestral territory has in recent years attracted a wave of illegal prospectors who have cut down forests, poisoned rivers and brought deadly diseases to the tribe.

    “Our land is again being invaded. Our rivers are again being polluted by mercury,” said Davi Kopenawa, a Yanomami leader who has dedicated his life to protecting Yanomami rights and lands in the Amazon.

(…)     

    “The Brazilian government must fulfil its protective role, where every Brazilian citizen, not just the Yanomami, feels protected. It is not a favour, but a constitutional obligation. It is necessary to curb the mining projects on indigenous lands because they are illegal under Brazilian law,” said Dario Kopenawa, vicepresident of the Hutukara Yanomami Association.

    Despite the tribe’s predicament, leaders say they are determined to preserve their communities and ancestral land’s rich biodiversity. In a message to mark International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples on 9 August, Wapichana called on governments to uphold the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, a comprehensive international instrument on the rights of indigenous peoples adopted by the General Assembly in 2007.

Adapted from https://www.ohchr.org/en/stories/2022/08/amazonrainforest-indigenous-tribe-fights-survival

TEXTO

In the Amazon rainforest, an indigenous tribe fights for survival

  09 August 2022

    Deep in the Amazon rainforest, an indigenous tribe that has remained relatively isolated from the outside world is waging a battle for its survival.

    For centuries, the Yanomami have inhabited a vast area of pristine forest and large, meandering rivers on the border between Brazil and Venezuela, living off fishing, hunting and fruit gathering.

    Today, the Yanomami – who number about 29,000 – say they are at serious risk of losing their lands, culture and traditional way of life. The lust for gold and other valuable minerals that lay beneath their ancestral territory has in recent years attracted a wave of illegal prospectors who have cut down forests, poisoned rivers and brought deadly diseases to the tribe.

    “Our land is again being invaded. Our rivers are again being polluted by mercury,” said Davi Kopenawa, a Yanomami leader who has dedicated his life to protecting Yanomami rights and lands in the Amazon.

(…)     

    “The Brazilian government must fulfil its protective role, where every Brazilian citizen, not just the Yanomami, feels protected. It is not a favour, but a constitutional obligation. It is necessary to curb the mining projects on indigenous lands because they are illegal under Brazilian law,” said Dario Kopenawa, vicepresident of the Hutukara Yanomami Association.

    Despite the tribe’s predicament, leaders say they are determined to preserve their communities and ancestral land’s rich biodiversity. In a message to mark International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples on 9 August, Wapichana called on governments to uphold the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, a comprehensive international instrument on the rights of indigenous peoples adopted by the General Assembly in 2007.

Adapted from https://www.ohchr.org/en/stories/2022/08/amazonrainforest-indigenous-tribe-fights-survival