Panda virus culprits convicted

Four hackers have been sentenced to between one and four years in prison following their conviction for producing and spreading a computer virus from November 2006 to March 2007, Sohu reported (in Chinese). The so-called "joss-stick burning panda virus," or Panda virus for short, has been used to infect program files and steal account names and passwords of online game players and users of popular chat sites, according to the People's Court of Xiantao, Hubei province. The defendants Li Jun, Wang Lei, Zhang Shun and Lei Lei were accused of gathering illegal income by selling the virus and stealing accounts and passwords.