Chinese police nab top computer virus maker

BEIJING: Chinese police have arrested a 25-year-old computer buff and five others in connection with the spread of a notorious online virus named "Panda burning joss stick" that has caused millions of computers in the country to crash.

Internet authorities said Li Jun, a resident of Wuhan in central China's Hubei Province, wrote the virus programme and let it loose on the Internet last October. Li confessed to selling the virus to 12 people for 100,000 yuan ($12,887).

The virus, which infects programme files and flashes a picture of a panda holding three joss sticks, has been spreading through the Internet since December last year. It has infected millions of computers nationwide, police said.

Authorities said it is the first time they have made an arrest involving a major Internet virus that originated in China.

The virus can steal account names and passwords of online game players and popular chat sites. It was listed as the worst computer virus last year by a major Chinese anti-virus company.

Li also produced the 'Wuhan boy' virus, 'Wuhan boy 2005' virus and 'QQ tail' virus, sources say.

Five other suspects, who used the virus to steal accounts of online gamers, have also been detained, Xinhua news agency reported from Wuhan.

The number of internet users in China soared 23.4 per cent last year to touch 137 million and is expected to overtake the United States to have the world's largest Internet population within two years.