Life of Guangzhou - Hacker Training Popular on Web

Computer security experts fear dozens of high school and university students will spend their forthcoming summer holiday learning hacking skills following the growing popularity of training programs on some Chinese Web sites, the Daily Sunshine reported this Tuesday.

According to the newspaper, the main programs include production of the Trojan Horse virus, how to decode email passwords and avoidance of virus detection software. Training fees range between 50 and 200 yuan (US$26.32) and face-to-face training as much as 1,000 yuan. Most of the hacker training Web sites promise to provide free Hacker software packages or QQ chat account numbers once netizens sign up for the training.

A Guangdong hacker trainer whose name was not identified said he is a university student and he himself studied how to hack on-line because he was curious.

"The majority of my trainees are students in high schools or universities. Since the summer vacation is approaching, many of them hope to study how to hack during that time," he said.

He also revealed that as long as trainees have basic computer knowledge, they can soon grasp elementary hacking skills.

The newspaper says the average age of computer criminals in the world is about 23 and the trend of them getting younger has become obvious in recent years.

Anti-virus experts warn that the situation of youngsters producing computer viruses to destroy the Internet is serious and their ages are becoming younger year after year. They say more and more students are training to be hackers to demonstrate their skills in computer technology.

Wang Jiangmin, the manager of anti-virus software company Beijing Jiangmin New Science & Technology Co. Ltd., said he hopes youngsters could use their computer skills for the good of the internet rather than crime.

(NOTE do we have adirect quote?)

The notorious "Panda Burning Joss Stick" virus started to spread across the Internet last December. It sent a picture of a panda holding three joss sticks as a substitute to all the icons of files it had infected. One of the worst viruses to have hit China, it infected program files and stole the account names and passwords of online games players and popular chat sites.

The creator of the "Panda burning joss stick" was identified as 25-year-old Li Jun in Wuhan, Hubei Province, but only after millions of computers had been infected nationwide. (Cao Zhen)