Date: March 19, 2005
Level: Pre-Intermediate +
Downloads: This Lesson (Word Doc) | Class Handout (Word Doc) | Class Handout (PDF)

THE ARTICLE

Police have prevented a huge online bank robbery attempt from taking place over the Internet. Thieves planned to steal $534million from a London branch of Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui bank. The robbers planned to send the money electronically to 10 different bank accounts around the world. They used special hacking software that could record the sequence of keystrokes that computer users made on their keyboards. This made it easy for the gang to find bank account numbers, passwords, and other confidential information to find out which customers had the most money. One member of the gang supposedly worked at Sumitomo and installed the keystroke-reading software onto the bank’s computers.

A public relations officer from the Tokyo branch of the bank said no money had been stolen. He said the bank’s IT security staff told British police last October that they suspected they were under attack. Detectives from Britain’s National Hi-Tech Crime Unit then started investigating. They arrested a 32-year-old Israeli man yesterday in connection with the planned robbery. Police are questioning him now in Tel Aviv and expect to make more arrests. They have warned all banks and businesses to take extra care of their computer security, as cyber criminals are becoming more and more skilled.

WARM UPS

1. CHAT: Talk in pairs or groups about banks / bank robberies / bank robbers / computer hackers / bank accounts / PIN numbers / passwords / Internet security / cyber crime…

To make things more dynamic, try telling your students they only have one minute (or 2) on each chat topic before changing topics / partners. Change topic / partner frequently to increase conversation.

2. INTERNET BRAINSTORM: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word ‘Internet’. Share your words with your partner / group and talk about them.

3. BANKING: In pairs/groups, talk about banking. Do you trust banks? Do you have confidence in Internet banking? Is your PIN number easy to guess? Do you worry about the safety of your credit card? Is Internet banking a good thing? Write down three questions each about banks. Ask them to your partner/group.

4. BANK OPINIONS: In pairs/groups, discuss whether you agree or disagree with the following opinions:

1. Internet banking is very dangerous. I can’t trust my information being sent online.
2. Computer hackers will always beat bank security systems.
3. Who cares? If someone steals your money, the bank has to give it back to you.
4. Keeping your money under the bed is best.
5. Keeping your money in banks is safer than keeping it in your wallet or purse.
6. Internet shopping and using your credit card is 100% safe and secure.
7. PIN numbers are too short. They are easy to guess because many people use their own birthdays!
8. There will be big problems when cash disappears and everything is e-money.
9. All big banks have been robbed online. They never tell their customers because it’s bad PR.
10. Hackers will one day erase all of the data from banks’ computers. Money will disappear.

PRE-READING IDEAS

1. WORD SEARCH: Students look in their dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … of the words ‘bank’ and ‘robbery’.

2. TRUE / FALSE: Look at the headline and guess whether these sentences are true or false:

1. Internet thieves stole millions of dollars from a bank.  T / F
2. Bank robbers planned to send the money to different countries by air mail.  T / F
3. Hackers used software to record the order in which computer keys were pressed.  T / F
4. One member of the gang was thought to be an insider at the bank.  T / F
5. A public relations officer from the bank said a lot of money was stolen.  T / F
6. The bank’s IT people guessed something was happening last October.  T / F
7. No one has been arrested yet in connection with the robbery.  T / F
8. Cyber criminals are becoming more and more skilled.  T / F

3. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article:

(a)	prevented	top secret
(b)	steal	office
(c)	sequence	rob
(d)	confidential	group
(e)	installed	interrogating
(f)	branch	foiled
(g)	suspected	Internet
(h)	unit	guessed
(i)	questioning	set up
(j)	cyber	order

4. PHRASE MATCH: Match the following phrases from the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):

(a)	Police have	around the world
(b)	taking	relations officer
(c)	different bank accounts	place over the Internet
(d)	confidential	extra care
(e)	One member of the gang	attack
(f)	public	information
(g)	no money	supposedly worked at Sumitomo
(h)	suspected they were under	prevented a huge online bank robbery
(i)	arrested a man in connection	had been stolen
(j)	take	with the planned robbery

 

WHILE READING ACTIVITIES

1. GAP-FILL:  Put the words on the right into the gaps.

Internet bank robbery plan foiled

Police have __________ a huge online bank robbery attempt from taking place over the Internet. Thieves __________ to steal $534million from a London branch of Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui bank. The robbers planned to send the money electronically to 10 different bank accounts around the world. They used special hacking software that could __________ the sequence of keystrokes that computer users made on their keyboards. This made it easy for the gang to find bank account numbers, passwords, and other __________ information to find out which customers had the most money. One member of the gang supposedly worked at Sumitomo and __________ the keystroke-reading software onto the bank’s computers.		record installed planned prevented confidential
A public relations officer from the Tokyo branch of the bank said no money had been __________. He said the bank’s IT security staff told British police last October that they __________ they were under attack. Detectives from Britain’s National Hi-Tech Crime Unit then started __________. They arrested a 32-year-old Israeli man yesterday in connection with the planned robbery. Police are __________ him now in Tel Aviv and expect to make more __________. They have warned all banks and businesses to take extra care of their computer security, as cyber criminals are becoming more and more skilled.		arrests investigating stolen questioning suspected

2. TRUE/FALSE:  Students check their answers to the T/F exercise.

3. SYNONYMS:  Students check their answers to the synonyms exercise.

4. PHRASE MATCH:  Students check their answers to the phrase match exercise.

5. QUESTIONS: Students make notes for questions they would like to ask the class about the article.

6. VOCABULARY:  Students circle any words they do not understand. In groups, pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find the meanings.

POST READING IDEAS

1. GAP-FILL: Check the answers to the gap-fill exercise.

2. QUESTIONS:  Students ask the discussion questions they thought of above to their partner / group / class. Pool the questions for all students to share.

3. VOCABULARY: As a class, go over the vocabulary students circled above.

4. STUDENT-GENERATED SURVEY: Pairs/Groups write down 3 questions based on the article. Conduct their surveys alone. Report back to partners to compare answers. Report to other groups / the whole class.

5. ‘BANK’ / ‘ROBBERY’: Students make questions based on their findings from pre-reading activity #1.

6. DISCUSSION:

1. What was interesting in this article?
2. Were you surprised by anything in this article?
3. Do you trust banks?
4. Why did you join the bank you use?
5. Do you ever ask banking staff about the bank’s security?
6. Do you trust online banking?
7. Do you use a credit card for Internet shopping?
8. Do you use a credit card for normal shopping (in real stores)?
9. Is your credit card information safer over a secure Internet connection from Amazon.com, or a telephone modem connection from Joe’s bookstore?
10. Are your passwords / PIN numbers easy to guess?
11. Do you ever forget your passwords / PIN numbers?
12. What kind of confidential information do you give out over the Internet?
13. Do you always complete the fields for address, telephone number, marital status etc?
14. Is cash safer than electronic money (e-money)?
15. Are you worried about cyber crime?
16. Are hackers smarter than IT security experts?
17. Should banks make us choose more / longer passwords?
18. Did you like this discussion?
19. Teacher / Student additional questions.

HOMEWORK

1. VOCABULARY EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or Google’s search field (or another search engine) to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find information on computer hacking. Share your findings with your class next lesson.

3. DETECTIVE: Imagine you are the detective in Tel Aviv. Write down ten questions you want to ask the gang member about the foiled robbery attempt. Use these questions in a role play next class.

4. CASH OR E-MONEY?: Write down five pros and five cons for having a society based on cash, and one that only uses e-money.

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

1. Internet thieves stole millions of dollars from a bank.  F
2. Bank robbers planned to send the money to different countries by air mail.  F
3. Hackers used software to record the order in which computer keys were pressed.  T
4. One member of the gang was thought to be an insider at the bank.  T
5. A public relations officer from the bank said a lot of money was stolen.  F
6. The bank’s IT people guessed something was happening last October.  T
7. No one has been arrested yet in connection with the robbery.  F
8. Cyber criminals are becoming more and more skilled.  T

SYNONYM MATCH:

(a)	prevented	foiled
(b)	steal	rob
(c)	sequence	order
(d)	confidential	top secret
(e)	installed	set up
(f)	branch	office
(g)	suspected	guessed
(h)	unit	group
(i)	questioning	interrogating
(j)	cyber	Internet

PHRASE MATCH:

(a)	Police have	prevented a huge online bank robbery
(b)	taking	place over the Internet
(c)	different bank accounts	around the world
(d)	confidential	information
(e)	One member of the gang	supposedly worked at Sumitomo
(f)	public	relations officer
(g)	no money	had been stolen
(h)	suspected they were under	attack
(i)	arrested a man in connection	with the planned robbery
(j)	take	extra care

GAP FILL:

Internet bank robbery plan foiled

Police have prevented a huge online bank robbery attempt from taking place over the Internet. Thieves planned to steal $534million from a London branch of Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui bank. The robbers planned to send the money electronically to 10 different bank accounts around the world. They used special hacking software that could record the sequence of keystrokes that computer users made on their keyboards. This made it easy for the gang to find bank account numbers, passwords, and other confidential information to find out which customers had the most money. One member of the gang supposedly worked at Sumitomo and installed the keystroke-reading software onto the bank’s computers.

A public relations officer from the Tokyo branch of the bank said no money had been stolen. He said the bank’s IT security staff told British police last October that they suspected they were under attack. Detectives from Britain’s National Hi-Tech Crime Unit then started investigating. They arrested a 32-year-old Israeli man yesterday in connection with the planned robbery. Police are questioning him now in Tel Aviv and expect to make more arrests. They have warned all banks and businesses to take extra care of their computer security, as cyber criminals are becoming more and more skilled.