Police Detains Young Hackers in China

Eight hackers based in Hubei Province of central China created a cyber Trojan horse that attacked 1 million PCs. Police have detained them for their activities that triggered the highest alert in the country. The case was first of its kind in spreading computer viruses across China, according to the police.

Police has accused 25 years old Li Jun from Wuhan of Hubei Province in central China for developing Xiongmao Shaoxiang (Panda burns joss-sticks); a virus that has been infecting the nation's numerous computers since last November (2006).

Li confessed of developing the cyber-bug on 16 October 2006. The bug is called worm.whboy that Li circulated over Internet by implanting it on websites. Li also confessed that he earned over 100,000Yuan ($13,000) by selling this virus to more than 120 people online, both directly and through other parties.

According to police the chief culprits knitted together to steal private information they had exploited for personal profits. Li also designed three more viruses, and all of them ravaged China's online communities.

5 of the remaining seven suspects apart from Li face accusation for replicating and circulating a number of other viruses including Xiongmao Shaoxiang.

The worm acquired the 1st 5-star severity rating that the Shanghai IT Service Center issued only on this. The reason attributes to the worm's ability to attack the LANs in protected govt. bureaus & companies causing harm to their databases and programs.

Worm_Viking, the official name of Xiongmao Shaoxiang is labeled the most serious computer killer over the four months, October 2006 - January 2007, as per the National Computer-Virus Center for Emergency Response.

When the worm attacks, the computer will show a blue-screen, bear frequent restarts automatically and lose data from hardware. Moreover, all the files on the PC appear as panda icon. This virus also installs a Trojan program that steals computer passwords.

Police started the investigation during mid-January 2007 in which officers from ten regions joined to unfold the case.

VP, Rising Corp., Mao Yiding said these eight arrests should indicate to young hackers that developing and proliferating malware could mean hefty costs for them.

Related article: Police Arrests Six Suspects Associated With TJX Credit Scam

» SPAMfighter News - 2/20/2007