World's biggest cybercrime gang stopped.

This is News Review from BBC Learning English, where we help you understand news headlines in English. I'm Neil.

And I'm Georgie.

Make sure you watch to the end to learn the vocabulary you need to talk about this story.

Don't forget to subscribe to our channel so you can learn more English from news headlines.

Now, the story.

One of the most significant disruptions of the cyber-criminal world.

That's what an operation to take control of Lockbit has been described as.

The criminal organization thought to be based in Russia, hacked into companies' computers and locked users out until they paid the money.

Now, Lockbit has been locked out of its own website after a UK-led operation.

You've been looking at the headlines, Georgie, what's the vocabulary people need to understand this story in English?

We have "takedown," "prolific," and "infamous."

This is News Review from BBC Learning English.

Let's have a look at our first headline.

This one's from Reuters: Lockbit cybercrime gang faces global takedown with indictments and arrests.

So Lockbit is the name of the cybercrime gang that has had its operations stopped by the British National Crime Agency.

We are looking at the word "takedown" which seems very straightforward, Georgie.

When you take something down from the internet as a verb, then you remove it.

And so the noun is a takedown.

Is it that simple?

Well, yes, Neil, you're right.

We put things up on the internet.

You are watching News Review now because we put it up online.

The opposite is take something down.

The noun is a takedown.

But takedown also has other meanings which make this headline interesting.

Yes. So we can describe a heavy defeat as a takedown.

It comes from sport wrestling.

If you throw someone to the ground, then that is a takedown; you defeat them.

And so that's important in this headline as well because for this cybercrime gang, this is a heavy defeat.

It's a takedown.

Yes.

Another meaning of takedown is strong criticism.

So Neil, remember when you told me that you're brilliant at juggling and then you dropped all the balls within a second.

Yeah, you said that even your dog is a better juggler than me, which is a real takedown. Watch.

Maybe your takedown was right.

Let's look at that again.

Let's have our next headline.

This one's from CNN: FBI and allies sees dark-web site of world's most prolific ransomware gang.

So here we are hearing about the FBI and their allies.

Allies are people who fight with you on the same side.

They've taken control of this dark-web site, Lockbit. We are interested, though, in the word "prolific."

It's a very useful adjective, isn't it?

Yes. So we use a prolific to describe something or someone that creates a lot of something.

In this case, Lockbit is described as prolific. It has committed a lot of crimes. Obviously, committing a crime is seen as a bad thing, but prolific isn't always used for negative situations.

Is it, Neil?

No, we can also use prolific to talk about good things.

So for example, the footballer, Lionel Messi is a prolific goalscorer.

It means he scores a lot of goals frequently or let's think about the writer Stephen King.

He's a prolific author.

He's written about 65 novels.

Now, Georgie, what is the opposite of prolific?

Well, unfortunately, we can't use un-prolific.

We could use unproductive.

Neil, you've told me many times that you're a singer-songwriter, but you've never actually written a song, have you?

You are unproductive.

I am.

It's true.

Very unproductive.

But you wait, my album is definitely coming next year.

Let's look at that again.

Let's have our next headline.

This one's from The Mirror: Infamous cybercrime gang 'Lockbit' taken down in huge operation led by UK and the FBI.

OK. So there's take down as a verb this time that we saw in our first headline, but we are looking at "infamous" and in the word infamous, I can recognize the word famous.

We all know what famous means.

And then there's that prefix "in" which usually means that it's the opposite in meaning.

But that's not the case here, is it?

No, and this is a slightly confusing bit of English because yes, you're right when we see the prefix in or im, it usually means the word becomes the opposite.

So impossible means not possible.

Sometimes, though, that isn't the case like here with infamous.

Yes. So infamous doesn't mean not famous.

It means famous but for bad reasons.

So for example, famous criminals are infamous or dictators, people like that.

Another similar word with a similar meaning is notorious.

Yes. And another good example of when the in prefix in a word doesn't mean not is inflammable.

So flammable means that something can catch fire.

So you would think that inflammable means that it can't catch fire, but actually, inflammable means that it's very likely to catch fire, which is confusing.

And a note on pronunciation of infamous, the stress is on the first syllable, infamous. We don't say infamous.

OK, let's look at that again.

We've had takedown--the removal of something from the internet or a defeat.

Prolific--producing a lot of something.

And infamous--famous, but for negative reasons.

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