Fujacks Authors Face Charges in Chinese Court

In February, we blogged about the arrest of notorious authors of W32/Fujacks in what was reportedly the first major case of cyber crime in China.

Early this week, Li Jun, along with 3 other associates, was formally charged in the Xiantao city court, in Hubei province of China according to official news reports from state-owned Xinhua News Agency.

In November 2006, the Chinese National CERT team discovered wide-spread infection of the W32/Fujacks worm in more than 7 provinces in China. Li Jun, the main author of the worm reportedly pocketed up to US$20,000 from the sale of malicious code and stolen passwords; his accomplices – Wang Lei US$10,000, and Zhang Shun US$1,500. Following the arrests, the Chinese Public Security Department published a “virus repair tool” and a public apology letter written by Li Jun, a rare and controversial practice by a police agency in most countries.

When convicted, they could face a maximum sentence of up to 5 years imprisonment. Interestingly, a Chinese legal consultant speaking to the media, reportedly commented that the “commendable” act of writing a “virus repair tool” could well result in a reduction of the jail sentence. If true, this could possibly be a first of its kind in the history of cyber crime fighting.

On a related note, Craig wrote a blog some time back discussing the pitfalls of engaging hackers and malware authors to do the “whitehat’s” job.