Li Jun, who confessed to having written the worm, and selling it to 12 clients for more than 100,000 yuan (US$12,500), was sentenced to four years in prison by a court in Xiantao in Hubei province, China. Wang Lei, Zhang Shun and Lei Lei were sentenced to between one year and two and a half years in jail for their part in the criminal scheme.
"Chinese cybercriminals are not just hitting PCs in their own country, but impacting computer users worldwide, so it's encouraging to see the authorities taking action against the perpetrators," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "Sophos experts have noted that a surprising proportion of malware written in China is designed to steal credentials from players of MMORPGs [Massively MultiPlayer Online Role-Playing Games]. This stolen information provides a revenue stream for unscrupulous hackers who will sell the information on to the highest bidder."
Earlier this year the Chinese police were planning to release a clean-up program written by Li Jun.
"Despite the worm's author writing a program to clean up his infestation, it doesn't seem to have gained him much sympathy from the authorities," continued Cluley. "Hackers would be wise not to break the law in the first place if they don't want to suffer from a similar fate."
