Chinese police yesterday arrested eight suspects thought to be
involved in producing and distributing a powerful computer virus,
according to Xinhua News Agency.
Police said it was the first such case in China relating to the
spread of computer viruses.?
Li Jun, a 25-year-old hacker from Wuhan, in central China's Hubei Province, is accused of creating the
virus 'Xiongmao Shaoxiang' (panda burns joss-sticks). The virus has
hit millions of computers in the country since November 2006.
He told police he programmed the virus on October 16, 2006 and
made more than 100,000 yuan (US$13,000) selling it via the Internet
to over 120 people by himself and through agents.??
Li also created three other viruses and all of them have caused
havoc within China's Internet communities.
Apart from Li, five of the other seven suspects with an average
age of 23 are accused of mutating and spreading various computer
viruses including 'Xiongmao Shaoxiang'.
Based in different areas of China including Shandong and Zhejiang provinces the five major suspects are
also charged with making money illegally by stealing the accounts
of computer games on QQ. This is an online chatting tool similar to
ICQ.
Xiongmao Shaoxiang, officially named Worm_Viking, is said to be
the worst virus of the past four months, according to the National
Computer Virus Emergency Response Center.
An infected computer will display a blue screen, go through
frequent automatic restarts and lose hardware data. All its files
are shown as a panda icon. The virus also features a Trojan horse
program which can steal the passwords of computer users.
Police began investigating the virus in the middle of January
with officers from over 10 regions joining forces to solve the
case.
(China Daily February 13, 2007)