Chinese authorities have arrested a group of hackers
allegedly connected to the Fujacks worm.
The worm, also known as Whboy, made headlines in January this
year because it converts icons of infected programs into a picture
of a panda burning joss-sticks as it steals usernames and passwords
from online games players.
In the final quarter of 2006 alone, internet security software
firm Sophos detected 31,000 web pages containing versions of the
Fujacks malware.
According to Chinese media reports, eight suspects have been
held in Wuhan, the capital city of Hubei Province in central
China.
One of those arrested, 25-year-old Li Jun, is believed to use
the handle "Whboy" and to be the creator of the Fujacks
malware.
According to a police statement, Li Jun earned more than $12,500
(£6,600) by selling the malware to other internet hackers.
Sophos says that 30% of the world's malware originates in China,
and half of this attempts to steal usernames and passwords, giving
cyber criminals easy access to personal and sensitive data for
financial gain and identity theft. The US is still the country
where most malware originates from, however.
Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, said,
"The international community should applaud the Chinese authorities
for investigating one of their first major cybercrime cases.
"With so much malware and spam being distributed from Chinese
computers, we can only hope that a strong message will be sent out
to other criminals based in the country," said Cluley.
Link to more details of the arrests, together
with an image of the Fujacks worm
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