According to Beijing News, China has detained six men in their 20s for writing or profiting from a computer virus dubbed the "joss-stick burning panda" which infected over a million PCs in the country and promptly began deleting files, damaging programs and attacking web portals during a late 2006 outbreak. The worm got its name from changing icons on desktops into cute cartoon pandas, the most famous of which holds three burning joss-sticks in his paws. Chinese media noted that this was the first time China "cracked a major computer virus case". Police held Li Jun, 25 a native of Wuhan city in central China, who wrote the virus in October and had earned more than 100,000 yuan ($12,890) by selling it to about 120 people. The other five, from three different provinces, were detained for updating and spreading the virus or for profiting from the stolen account names. The virus provided the detainees with account names of online gamers and instant messengers, which are hotly traded with real money in China's cyberspace.
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News source: CNN
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