Read the text Picasso and Monets Are Stolen in Dutch Heist and answer questions 25), 26), 27),and 28).

Picasso and Monets Are Stolen in Dutch Heist

AMSTERDAM (AP) — Thieves broke into a Rotterdam museum on Tuesday and walked off with works from the likes of Picasso, Monet, Gauguin and Matisse potentially worth hundreds of millions.

Police haven't said how they pulled off the early hours heist, but an expert who tracks stolen art said the robbers clearly knew what they were after.

"Those thieves got one hell of a haul," said Chris Marinello, who directs the Art Loss Register.

The heist at the Kunsthal museum is one of the largest in years in the Netherlands, and is a stunning blow for the private Triton Foundation collection, which was being exhibited publicly as a group for the first time.

"It's every museum director's worst nightmare," said Kunsthal director Emily Ansenk, who had been in Istanbul on business but returned immediately.

News of the theft "struck like a bomb," she said at a press conference in the museum's cafe.

She declined to reveal any details of how the thieves struck, or how the museum is protected, other than describing its security as "state of the art" and "functional."

Willem van Hassel, the museum's chairman, said its security systems are automated, and do not use guards on site.

Police arrived at the scene five minutes after an alarm was triggered, he said. He described the museum's insurance as adequate for the exhibition.

The collection was on display as part of celebrations surrounding the museum's 20th anniversary.

Police spokeswoman Willemieke Romijn said investigators were reviewing videotapes of the theft, which took place around 3 a.m. local time, and calling for any witnesses to come forward.

The Art Loss Register's Marinello said the items taken could be worth "hundreds of millions of euros" if sold legally at auction. However, he said that was now impossible, as the paintings have already been registered internationally as stolen.

The stolen paintings were Pablo Picasso's 1971 "HAsenk said she spoke on behalf of tarlequin Head"; Claude Monet's 1901 "Waterloo Bridge, London" and "Charing Cross Bridge, London"; Henri Matisse's 1919 "Reading Girl in White and Yellow"; Paul Gauguin's 1898 "Girl in Front of Open Window"; Meyer de Haan's "Self-Portrait," around 1890, and Lucian Freud's 2002 work "Woman with Eyes Closed."

Marinello said the thieves have limited options available, such as seeking a ransom from the owners, the museum or the insurers. They could conceivably sell the paintings in the criminal market too, though any sale would likely be a small fraction of their potential auction value.

The Triton Foundation is a collection of avant-garde art put together by multimillionaire Willem Cordia, an investor and businessman, and his wife, Marijke Cordia-VanThe Kunsthal museu der Laan.

Asenk said she spoke on behalf of the family in saying "we are shocked, but we will go on."

"All involved want the public to still be able to see these kinds of special collections and private collections," she said.

The museum was cordoned off as police carried out their investigation Tuesday, but the museum will reopen Wednesday, she said.

The Kunsthal museum is a display space that has no permanent collection of its own — the name means "art gallery" in Dutch.

The Cordia family collection includes works by more than 150 famed artists. Others whose work was on show include Paul Cezanne, Marc Chagall, Salvador Dali, Edgar Degas and Andy Warhol.

Curators of the Cordia family collection aim to have the works on display for the public, and pieces have been shown in the past.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2012/10/16/world/europe/ap-eu-netherlands-art-heist.html?_r=1&hp

    Use It Better: The Smart Ways to Pick Passwords

    Four strategies for keeping your information safe

    By David Pogue, September 7, 2011

    If you want to be absolutely secure, you should make up a different password for every single Web site you visit. Each password should have at least 16 characters, and it should contain a scramble of letters, numbers, and punctuation; it should contain no recognizable words. You should change all of these passwords every couple of weeks. And you should not write any of them down anywhere.

    That, at least, is what security experts advise. Unfortunately, they leave out the part about the 15 minutes you’d have to spend with flash cards before bed each night, trying to remember all those utterly impractical passwords.

    There are, fortunately, more sensible ways to incorporate passwords into your life. You won’t be as secure as the security experts would like, but you’ll find a much better balance between protection and convenience.

♦     The “security through brevity” technique. My teenage son’s smartphone password is only a single character. It’s fast and easy to type. But a random evildoer picking up his phone doesn’t know that; he just sees “Enter password” and gives up − so, in its way, it’s just as secure as a long password. (Of course, I may have just blown it by publishing his little secret.)

♦     Password keepers. The world is full of utility programs for your Mac, PC or app phone that memorize all your Web passwords for you. They’re called things like RoboForm, Account Logon, and (for the Mac) 1Password. Each asks you for a master password that unlocks all the others; after that, you get to surf the Web freely, admiring how the software not only remembers your passwords and contact information, but fills in the Web forms for you automatically.

♦     The “disguised English word” technique. Having your passwords guessed by ne’er-do-wells online doesn’t happen often, but you do hear about such cases. The bad guys start by using “dictionary attacks” − software that tries every word in the dictionary, just in case you were dumb enough to make your password something like “password” or your first name. (These special dictionaries also contain common names, places, number combinations and phrases such as “ilovemycat.”)

     That’s why conventional wisdom suggests disguising your password by changing a letter or two into numbers or symbols. Instead of “supergirl,” choose “supergir!” or “supergir1,” for example. That way, you’ve thwarted the dictionary attacks without decreasing the memorizability.

♦     The multi-word approach. Another good password technique is to run words together, like “picklenose” or “toothygrin.” Pretty easy to remember, but tough for a dictionary attack to guess.

(Adapted from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=pogue-use-it-better-smart-ways-pick-passwords)

    Use It Better: The Smart Ways to Pick Passwords

    Four strategies for keeping your information safe

    By David Pogue, September 7, 2011

    If you want to be absolutely secure, you should make up a different password for every single Web site you visit. Each password should have at least 16 characters, and it should contain a scramble of letters, numbers, and punctuation; it should contain no recognizable words. You should change all of these passwords every couple of weeks. And you should not write any of them down anywhere.

    That, at least, is what security experts advise. Unfortunately, they leave out the part about the 15 minutes you’d have to spend with flash cards before bed each night, trying to remember all those utterly impractical passwords.

    There are, fortunately, more sensible ways to incorporate passwords into your life. You won’t be as secure as the security experts would like, but you’ll find a much better balance between protection and convenience.

♦     The “security through brevity” technique. My teenage son’s smartphone password is only a single character. It’s fast and easy to type. But a random evildoer picking up his phone doesn’t know that; he just sees “Enter password” and gives up − so, in its way, it’s just as secure as a long password. (Of course, I may have just blown it by publishing his little secret.) 

♦     Password keepers. The world is full of utility programs for your Mac, PC or app phone that memorize all your Web passwords for you. They’re called things like RoboForm, Account Logon, and (for the Mac) 1Password. Each asks you for a master password that unlocks all the others; after that, you get to surf the Web freely, admiring how the software not only remembers your passwords and contact information, but fills in the Web forms for you automatically. 

♦     The “disguised English word” technique. Having your passwords guessed by ne’er-do-wells online doesn’t happen often, but you do hear about such cases. The bad guys start by using “dictionary attacks” − software that tries every word in the dictionary, just in case you were dumb enough to make your password something like “password” or your first name. (These special dictionaries also contain common names, places, number combinations and phrases such as “ilovemycat.”) 

    That’s why conventional wisdom suggests disguising your password by changing a letter or two into numbers or symbols. Instead of “supergirl,” choose “supergir!” or “supergir1,” for example. That way, you’ve thwarted the dictionary attacks without decreasing the memorizability. 

♦     The multi-word approach. Another good password technique is to run words together, like “picklenose” or “toothygrin.” Pretty easy to remember, but tough for a dictionary attack to guess.  

(Adapted from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=pogue-use-it-better-smart-ways-pick-passwords)