First published: 31st August 2007
Four men, Li Jun, Wang Lei, Zhang Shun and Lei Lei, have been charged with damaging Internet information systems in Xiantao City over their alleged roles in creating and spreading the Fujacks worm, also known as worm.whboy and "Panda burning joss sticks".
Fujacks spread, mainly on Chinese-language systems, though this was not a limitaion of the worm, during January 2007. Anti-virus company Sophos detected about 35,000 different websites that were hosting variants of Fujacks. It has backdoor capability, and can be used for stealing personal information including the account names and passwords of online game players and users of chat software, such as QQ
The alleged author, Li Jun, is said to have made over 100,000 yuan (US$12,500) selling to worm to twelve clients. Police also announced in February that they would release a removal tool for the worm, written by Li Jun, though this was criticised by security experts.
If convicted, the gang of four could face five years or more in prison. The arrests were said to be the first the Chinese Police had made in connection with a major internet virus.
