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Computers have changed our lives in many ways and made so many things easier to do. Most of us would probably agree that the computer is the most important invention of the 20th [1] . By now most of us know how to use a computer and these days children learn how to use them at school. This sounds like a great idea. Computer games are good entertainment and educational programs are clearly very useful. But some children are able to do surprising things with computers. For example, in the United States some young computer users found a way to rob banks! These very [2] boys made a computer program that wrote thousands and thousands of different telephone numbers. When they [3] their program to the bank's telephone, the computer started dialling the numbers. The computer [4] dialling the phone numbers, day after day, until the bank's secret telephone number was finally found. Then the boys were able to open the files which [5] bank account information, and they started changing things. As you can imagine, you could easily make yourself very rich just by opening a new file and typing some numbers! Of course, bank [6] soon noticed that there were problems with their accounts and they started complaining to the bank manager. The police were brought in but it wasn't easy to [7] these criminals because no one expected the thieves to be children. In the end the police weren't sure what to do with the boys. They were too young to be sent to a [8] of law, and they were certainly too young to go to prison. The bank just had to find a better way to protect its files. Computer criminals have also [9] problems for credit card companies in the same way, and these companies have lost a lot of money. Finally, you may be interested to know that students who are good with computers have found a new way to [10] . Again, by trying thousands of different numbers, they find their way into the computer network of their school or college and simply change their marks!

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