The Linguist

18 The Linguist Vol/62 No/4 thelinguist.uberflip.com FEATURES Nataliya Yachmeneva outlines the challenges of cybersecurity translation and understanding the concepts behind the terminology W e all bear witness to the breakneck speed at which the concepts of IT and cybersecurity have been evolving, together with software and hardware designed to counteract growing cybercrime. No dictionaries can keep up with the related terminology, while tech talk is often so informal and full of implication that you wonder if industry insiders can read each other's minds. For a translator, this means intense research every time you translate and constant self-education. Having friends who work in the field also helps. Cybersecurity is an important segment of the Russian IT market, with such players as Kaspersky, Dr.WEB and AVZ. I first got into this area when a major translation agency in Russia specialising in software translation offered training for prospective providers. I worked mainly with the marketing side of cybersecurity; that meant a nice cross between creative style and technical knowledge. Translation in IT and cybersecurity throws up such issues as acronyms and abbreviations ('RAM', ОЗУ; 'GHz', ГГц; 'QoS', качество обслуживания), neologisms ('Trojan', троянская программа; 'phishing', фишинг; 'sneaker-network', флоппинет) and Americanisms (from spellings like 'center' and 'analyze' to expressions related to baseball). Challenges also come from product, company and department names ('Global Research and Analysis Team'/'GReAT', глобальный центр исследования и анализа угроз) and job titles ('chief information security officer'/ 'CISO', руководитель/директор по информационной безопасности). To translate successfully in cybersecurity, you must be aware of both general IT terminology and the jargon typical of this area. General terminology includes everything from the fundamental concepts of computer science and the principles behind networks, to computational processes, operating systems, user interface elements and physical devices. An example is the basic term 'application', which can be translated as программа ('program'). To a layperson this is an old- fashioned name for an app; to a developer it means the code behind it. A better term in most cases will be приложение, which is the result of this code that we can see on the screen and use for everyday purposes. 'Latency' can be translated as латентность (the benefit here being brevity and close resemblance to the English term) but also as задержка (lit. 'delay') or время ожидания ('waiting time'), both of which better convey the meaning of this concept. Similarly, 'provisioning' (the name of a process) does not tell us much, so the translator needs to understand what it means (preparing a system for work or use 1 ) and employ a description (подготовка к работе/эксплуатации). Cyber-specific terms Specialised terminology for cybersecurity describes possible vulnerabilities, detection and protection techniques, types of malicious actions and malware. Some terms (e.g. 'exploit', 'rootkit') use established loan words in the target language (эксплойт, руткит). As translators, we need to familiarise ourselves with such conventions. You will also come across such terms as 'health', which refers to the condition of a system and whether it is running properly. It can be translated as состояние ('state, condition') or здоровье (lit. 'health'); the choice will often depend on the register, the latter being more informal. In English, phrases can often be shortened while remaining intelligible to the reader, but in Russian more detail may be required. 'Real- time antivirus' is a condensed construction, typical of the English language, that requires a more detailed description in Russian: антивирусная защита в режиме реального времени (lit. 'antiviral protection in the real- time mode'). I would translate 'web-cam protection' as защита от взлома веб-камеры, specifying 'protection from web-cam hacking'. Sometimes, as in all specialised fields, there are sloppy or implicit expressions. One of my assignments contained the term 'fraudulent database' but it was not clear what this meant. Fortunately, a description in the source text indicated that it referred to a database of fraudulent URLs, so the translation was база адресов мошеннических веб-сайтов. In order to feel and sound confident about the subject matter, the translator needs to understand what a term means – for example that a '0-day threat' (угроза нулевого дня) is a type of threat that uses a yet unknown vulnerability in the system to worm its way inside. 2 Sometimes the required information may be contained in the source text, but when the reference is a cutting-edge piece of technology the translator will have to explore the landscape and create a new word. In many cases the translator can do initial research by using the search tool (e.g. Ctrl+F) across the whole source batch. I found this Net security © UNSPLASH

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