The Beijing Olympics combined with the summer school vacation could lead to an epidemic of computer viruses, experts have warned.

They said more computers were expected to be infected with viruses in the second half during the vacation (July and August) and during the Olympics, periods virus writers would target to increase their "reputations", according to Jiangmin Science, the tech support partner of the National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center, the state-level anti-virus organization.

During the summer vocation, many students play online games which become targets for hackers, experts said. And during the Beijing Olympics, virus infections could reach a record high, according to Symantec, a US-based anti-virus firm.

About 10 million computers on the Chinese mainland were reported to be infected by computer viruses in the first half of the year, a 30 percent decrease from a year ago, a Beijing-based Internet security firm said yesterday.

The decrease came as the virus became more difficult to be detected, which led to fewer people reporting the virus, experts said.

In the first six months, 9.8 million computers were reported to have been infected by viruses, compared with 14 million a year ago, according to Jiangmin.

The figure was obtained through firms' detection as well as victims' reports through phone and e-mail.

"Viruses are now 'smart' and well-targeted," Jiangmin marketing director Cao Lingxiang said. "Big-scale infections, such as Panda virus last year, didn't happen in the first half."

If a virus was devised to steal people's online gaming or bank accounts, it was unlikely to disturb other daily applications, which made many people unaware their computers had been infected.

(Shanghai Daily July 9, 2008)