Chinese antivirus war ends in death sentence

A territory war between two Chinese antivirus companies has resulted in a death sentence for a senior Beijing official.

Yu Bing, former director of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, has reportedly been given a two year suspended death sentence for using state systems to fraudulently trump up business for antivirus vendor, Rising Antivirus.

Yu was found to have taken large bribes from the company in 2005 in exchange for advising the public to download its software and trumping up charges against fledgling rival Micropoint.

The bureau director had ordered his department to issue a public virus alert which it claimed could be resolved by downloading Rising Antivirus software.

While the virus was real, it was later found to have been developed by Rising Antivirus, according to reports in Chinese media.

However, Yu blamed Micropoint's boss for releasing the virus and later handed the company's technology over to Rising Antivirus.

Yu's final move against Micropoint was to advise China's only antivirus testing facility to reject its application for assessment.

The ordeal was said to have cost Micropoint an estimated US$4.5 million.