Panda virus creator jailed for 8 years

Date: September 24, 2007
Source: news.monstersandcritics.com


A court in central China on Monday sentenced a computer programmer to four years in prison for creating and spreading a virus known as 'panda burns joss sticks,' a court official said.

Three other defendants were sentenced to between one year and two and a half years in prison for their role in spreading Li Jun's virus, the official told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa by telephone from Xiantao city in Hubei province.

Prosecutors told the court in Xiantao that 25-year-old Li and the other defendants had caused 'huge damage to millions of computer users' from November to March.

The four men earned at least 200,000 yuan (27,000 dollars) by selling the worm-style virus, state media said.

The arrests over the virus, which got its name because it displays a series of cartoon pandas as it steals passwords and deletes data, were the first criminal cases involving a computer virus in China.


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