In brief A computer virus specifically designed to steal files with names such as "exam" or "test questions" has reportedly been discovered by a Chinese Internet security firm.

The "exam theft" virus is capable of infecting Microsoft Word and Excel files and uploading targeted documents onto the Net, the Shanghai Daily News reports. The paper reports that there is a thriving trade in black-market exam papers and implies this might have motivated the creation of the virus.

However Beijing-based Jiangmin Science Technology, which first reported the virus, was unable to back up this aspect of the story. "We haven't found a direct link between the new virus and the exam paper leak that occurred two months ago," Cao Lingxiang, a PR official at Jiangmin Science Technology told the Shanghai Daily News. ®

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