China has detained six men in their 20s for writing a computer virus dubbed the "joss-stick burning panda" which has infected over a million PCs, Reuters reported. It is the first time China has cracked a major computer virus case. In late 2006, the worm wreaked havoc among individual and corporate computers, deleting files, damaging programs and attacking web portals. The worm was able to steal account names of online gamers and instant messengers, which are traded for profit in Chinese cyberspace. One of the detainees earned more than US$13,000 by selling information to 120 people. Almost two-thirds of spam, viruses and other computer security threats delivered around the world in 2006 originated either in the US or China.
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