China Busts Cybercriminals

In China, sending spam or tweeting fibs just got a whole lot harder. Authorities came down hard on more than 10,000 online criminals this week, busting 600 criminal gangs in raids that the government said were focused on porn distributors and scammers. But alongside hard-bitten cybercriminals, authorities also used the raid to take down errant, regime-critical social networkers. The chief of the Beijing Public Security Bureau said that the raids were a warning against agitators who "attack" the country's leaders online. Beijing police also shut down 263 Internet cafés, saying that the move would help "protect the physical and mental health of young people."