Hi, I'm Neil.

Joining me today is Dan.

Hello, so down.

What's our story?

It's a story about a global virus, but it won't make you sick.

A virus that won't make you sick.

Very interesting.

Let's find out some more from this BBC World Service news bulletin experts and cybersecurity or warning of a possible new we've of malware attacks around the world when people return to work after the weekend.

More than 120,000 systems in about 100 countries are estimated to have been infected on Friday.

The disruption has hit users, including government officers, car manufacturers, banks and health services.

The malware prevents access to computer data and demands a ransom to lift the block.

So starting last Friday and continuing through the weekend, a nasty computer virus has infected and spread across a large number of countries through their computer systems.

This has affected major organisations, including governments, health services and industry.

The virus blocks access to the computer Okay, Well, this has been a massive story.

Over the last few days.

You've been scanning the news websites and looking for the words and expressions people need to understand and to be able to talk about this story that what have you found?

I certainly have.

So I found surge Ransomware and stopped in its tracks, surge ransomware and stopped in its tracks.

Okay, let's start with that 1st 1 Dan, what's the headline?

So our first headline comes from the Independent and says Cyber attack.

Fears of surge in Ransomware infections as people return to work on Monday.

Okay, So surged, their meaning sudden increase exactly suddenly and greatly increasing.

And it's very related toe water.

Think of the expression.

A title surge.

This is when the seawater suddenly rises onto the land and nobody expected it.

Okay, we don't just use it when we're talking about water these days, though, do we know we don't?

You can also talk about power as in electricity surge in power.

When might that happen?

Yes.

So, for example, when there's a TV program that huge numbers of people are watching at the same time, let's say a football match in on ditz.

Ah, halftime or there's a break for the adverts.

Lots of people in the United Kingdom at least, will make a cup of tea and put on their cattles, and there'll be an electricity surge exactly like that.

And we can also do surges off emotion like a surge of joy or a surge of interest.

Prices may surge due to economic factors and, of course, people the sudden movement of people like Oxford Circus Rush Hour for yes, for example, our nearest tube that's underground train system in London is Oxford Circus sits one of the busiest in the city and going home time, there's a surge of people.

Sometimes they have to shut.

The gates just started.

Too many people trying to get down into that tunnel can also be used as a verb.

So as well as saying the surge of people pushing into the station, we can say the people surged into the station and as a general rule of thumb will use surge plus in with a noun and Serge plus off with an emotion.

Okay, thanks for that.

Our next headline on with the word Ransomware.

Our second headline comes from the BBC News and says Microsoft warns Ransomware cyber attack is a wake up call.

Okay, so ransomware, a virus designed to stop a computer working unless money is paid?

Yes, it's very nice word.

And it support Manto, which means it's two words smashed together to make one word on.

We actually heard another one in the bulletin.

It was malware.

Malware is a combination off the word malicious, meaning bad or evil.

And where coming from software, which is a computer program ransomware, is like malware.

Except that ransomware is more specific.

We use the wear from software, but we have ransom, as in the money that you must pay to return the victim of a kidnapping.

Yes.

Okay, um, this is a an extremely modern buried.

In fact, I think I had never used this word until about three days ago.

And now it's everywhere, which is a great thing of that news you having.

I can take these words on the cutting edge.

A map, Hillary.

Yes.

So it's been around a few years.

However, that's right.

So because of the current level of technology, these kind of programs and this kind of malware, these viruses, they're emerging more and more.

You wouldn't have heard This say 2030 years ago just didn't exist.

Brand new.

Modern word.

Okay, Ransomware.

Next final headline.

Our final headline comes from news dot com dot au and says Marcus Hutchins, named as man who stopped global cyberattack in its tracks.

Okay, So stopped in its tracks.

Stopped moving or doing something that suddenly Yeah.

Okay, now a bit confused here, Dan.

All right.

You know how it is.

I do tell May.

I thought tracks were marks that you made on the ground when you walked exactly that.

And you're right.

Tracks are the footsteps that you leave in a soft substance on the floor, for example, snow.

Now imagine you're walking through a forest in the snow and every step you take, you leave a footprint.

These are your tracks.

They show where you're where you've bean and where you may be going.

However, suddenly you see a bear.

What do you do?

You stop.

You stop in your tracks.

Your feet are in exactly the last position that they were.

Yeah, and this is ah is quite common.

It's a sort of a surprise move.

Things like that people get stopped in their tracks.

So why are we using this?

To talk about a software piece of malicious software?

Well, because it's the abrupt halt of the computer virus on this spread.

Somebody found a way to stop it.

Moving forwards if it helps.

I heard another story that's related, but it may or may not be true.

Think of it like this.

Trains run on tracks that show where the train is bean and where it will be going.

If I want to stop the train to Robert, I need to stop it in its tracks.

I might push over a tree on, well, abruptly stopped the train from moving forward.

Okay.

Very useful expression used widely.

That's right.

Um, have you ever been stopped in your tracks that I have once?

Yes.

My wife Stop me in my tracks.

First time I saw her, actually, I came around a corner and saw her for the first time and she hit me a bit like a train.

I was in love at first sight.

Wow, Dan, before this gets too mushy, I think we need to move on to our Facebook challenge writer.

Okay, So, ransomware as we've discussed is a portmanteau word, meaning a word made from two other words put together which two words form the word ransomware.

Okay, so we put that out there on Facebook, and the options were a ran and somewhere so ran somewhere.

Be ransom and beware or see ransom and software.

What was their response again?

The response was overwhelmingly positive.

I think we're going to have to start, right?

Making your harder got questions.

They're too clever out there.

So everybody who said the answer is C You are correct.

Well done, Mohammed.

A Abou Hodeidah.

Well done.

Here.

A kazoo condo?

Where about?

Well done.

Shoe peel.

Babu Dash Sabah.

Gordana Laurent, Try and everybody else who said See?

Good job, everybody!

Yes.

Well done.

And Dan.

Now can you just recap the words we've been looking at today?

Certainly the first word we had was surge, which is a sudden increase.

Then Ransomware, a virus designed to stop a computer working unless money is paid and finally stopped in its tracks, which is stop moving or doing something suddenly.

Yes, well, we're gonna have to start this program in its tracks because we've run out of time.

But if you would like to test yourself on today's vocabulary, there's a quiz you can take on our website.

BBC Learning english dot com, where you can find all kinds of other videos and activities to help you improve your English.

Thank you for joining us and good bye bye bye.

He's a review from BBC Learning English.