Chinese anti-virus company Rising reports that a new variant of the CIH Internet virus is thought to have been created by a Chinese person.

Rising's antivirus engineers on May 17 found the virus contained a character string "yangming", a typical Chinese name. Rising has reported details of the "New CIH" to the Chinese public security bureau.

Chinese virus writers face a possible punishment of five years in prison, according to China's Criminal Law. Rising has not confirmed who is the actual writer, but the company is continuing its investigation.