A Chinese computer hacker who was jailed for four years for damaging millions of computers gave a cash donation Friday to a research base for giant pandas in an act of remorse for a virus he wrote and named after the endangered bears in 2006.

Li Jun, creator of the notorious "joss-stick burning panda," donated 50,000 yuan (7,515 U.S. dollars) to the Chengdu Research Base for Giant Panda Breeding as a special fund for a 5-month-old cub named "Yun", meaning "Cloud".

Li, a self-taught computer expert, said he could never repent enough for the damage he caused four years ago, and vowed to safeguard web security.

After he was released from jail early this year, Li was employed by Panda Security, a leading European provider of IT security solutions, as a security consultant.

The company has offered its "panda cloud office protection" to 10,000 Chinese businesses for their computer security.

"The computer virus has been a nightmare for me. Now I'm happy to contribute to a clean on-line environment," said Li, 28.

Li and his three accomplices raked in more than 200,000 yuan in scams, including selling anti-virus software to combat "joss-stick burning panda".

The virus, which changed icons on desktops into cartoon pandas holding three burning joss-sticks, wreaked havoc by deleting files, damaging programs and attacking web portals.

It was also able to steal account names of on-line gamers and instant messengers, which were hotly traded for real money on the Internet.

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