Virtual police force to get boost

GUANGZHOU: More Internet police will be deployed to fight increasing online attacks in the southern Chinese province, Guangdong police said yesterday.

"Virtual police will appear next month at major websites in Guangdong to prevent hacking, the spread of viruses and other online crimes," said Yu Canxian, director of the Internet supervision department, under the Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Public Security.

In addition to expanding Internet patrols, online police will handle reports on Internet crimes from local residents and Internet surfers, Yu said at a conference in Guangzhou.