China Jails Trojan Virus Authors in Cybercrime Crackdown

A Chinese court Wednesday sentenced 11 members of a malware ring for writing and distributing Trojan horse viruses meant to steal online game account passwords, according to state media.

The people, who stole login information for more than 5 million game accounts, were given prison sentences of up to three years and were fined a total of 830,000 Chinese yuan (US$120,000), China's Xinhua news agency said. Dozens of other members of the ring, which is suspected of 30 million yuan ($4.4 million) in crime, are expected to be sentenced soon, Xinhua said.

Reports of arrests and court sentences for cybercriminals have become increasingly common in China after the country has strengthened its laws governing the activity. The government action has come in response to increasing signs of organization among cybercriminals, including division of the labor needed to design, distribute and profit from information-stealing malware. pcworld

China Warns About Return of Destructive Panda Virus

A computer worm that China warned Internet users against is an updated version of the Panda Burning Incense virus, which infected millions of PCs in the country three years ago, according to McAfee.

The original Panda worm, also known as Fujacks, caused widespread damage at a time when public knowledge about online security was low, and led to the country's first arrests for virus-writing in 2007. The new worm variant, one of many that have appeared since late 2006, adds a malicious component meant to make infection harder to detect, said Vu Nguyen, a McAfee Labs researcher.

"It has gotten more complex with the addition of a rootkit," said Nguyen. "It definitely makes it more challenging for users to clean up and even to know that their systems have been compromised."

A rootkit burrows into a system to try to hide the existence of malware.

The first Panda worm gained fame in China for switching the icons of infected files with an image of a panda holding three incense sticks. The same image would also flash across a victim's screen, but the worm's final goal was to install password-stealing Trojan horses. The worm infected millions of PCs, according to Chinese state media. Its author was ordered to write a removal tool for the worm and later sentenced to four years in prison. Tech Shout

China police chief urges harsher Internet controls

BEIJING — China's police chief has called for a reinforced nationwide Internet security system, in the nation's latest effort to oversee the activities of the world's largest online population.

"The Internet is developing quickly, there are many loopholes in social management, and maintaining social stability faces unprecedented new challenges," public security minister Meng Jianzhu said in rare public remarks.

"One must... actively establish... a comprehensive prevention and control social security system that covers the Internet and the real world," he said in a speech published on the ministry website Monday.

Internet use has expanded at a dizzying pace in China, which now has the world's largest online population of at least 338 million users.

In a bid to maintain control, authorities regularly censor Internet content they deem unhealthy including pornography and violence, but also information critical of the government -- a system dubbed the "Great Firewall of China."

But many online users get around the system by using proxy servers that allow them to access blocked sites.
AFP