Panda Virus Coders Jailed for Illegal Online Gambling Operation

The Chinese coders responsible for the ‘Panda Burns Incense’ virus have been jailed for their involvement in an illegal online gambling operation.

In today’s online gambling news in China, Li Jun and Zhang Shung, who were behind the Panda Virusthat infected a millions of PCs in 2006, were caught facilitating the Gold Ingot Chess and Card Site.

After violating Chinese gambling laws, since the government does not grant licenses for the operation of online gambling, the site was shut down in May 2012, after running for just over a year.

The illegal gambling site had reportedly earned its backers RMB 8 million ($1.3 million) before it was taken offline.

Computer hackers arrested for involvement with illegal online gambling operation

While 26 defendants were charged in connection to the site, Li and Zhang stood out for the multi-year sentences that they served back in 2007, for their infamous malware, which stole the passwords of millions of online gaming and IM accounts.

Their Trojan Horse program, headed up by its cute panda mascot, wrecked havoc in 2006, when the panda virus, known as Fujacks, infected computers across China, replacing icons with a panda holding three joss sticks, while it secretly stole funds from online accounts.

The tech-savvy duo Li Jun and Zhang Shun were sentenced to three and five years, respectively, for their involvement with the Gold Ingot Chess and Card site. Li and Zhang were also slapped with fines of RMB 80K ($13K) and RMB 200K ($33K), respectively.