[ISN] Million yuan job awaits jailed worm author

From: InfoSec News (alerts@private)
Date: Tue Sep 25 2007 - 22:02:56 PDT


http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2007/200709/20070925/article_332460.htm

By Lydia Chen 
2007-9-25 

WANT a high paying job? Perhaps a little online vandalism will help your 
chances.

A network company in eastern China has offered a job paying a million 
yuan (US$133,155) a year to Li Jun -- the inventor of the most 
destructive computer virus in China -- although he was sentenced to four 
years in prison yesterday.

Jushu Technology Co, which is based in Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, 
said it would like to hire Li Jun, the author of the worm.whboy, or 
"panda burning joss sticks," to be its technology director as "the 
company can offer a good platform to show his talents," the Hubei-based 
Changjiang Times reported today.

Li, a 25-year-old Wuhan native, received the sentence for writing and 
profiting from the panda worm that infected over a million computers 
countrywide and caused huge losses, a court in Hubei Province announced 
yesterday.

Company general manager Dong Zhenguo told the newspaper that the company 
fell prey to the worm and he personally hates what Li has done.

However, he later learned from media reports that Li, who created the 
virus over discontent at his failure to land a job, may not be a bad guy 
and "just went astray," the report said.

So far, about 10 network companies across the country have offered jobs 
to Li, whom they regarded was a "precious genius," the report said 
citing Li's lawyer Wang Wanxiong.

Li's cyber bug, which earned him about 145,000 yuan after selling it to 
other hackers from December 2006 to February this year, can prevent 
infected computers from operating anti-virus software and all programs 
using the "exe" suffix.

The worm could also steal users' online game account information and 
passwords for accounts with online instant communication tools, such as 
the popular QQ, developed by Shenzhen-based Tencent Holdings Ltd.

Computer owners learned that their systems were infected when their 
executable file icons turned into images of pandas with burning joss 
sticks.

The worm received the first five-star severity rating ever issued by the 
Shanghai Information Technology Service Center because it could attack 
local-area networks in government bureaus and companies and damage their 
programs and databases.

Three of Li's accomplices were also jailed for up to 
two-and-a-half-years each yesterday.


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