Defendants confess to a major telecom scam that resulted in the death of a high school graduate in Linyi, Shandong province on June 27. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

IN SEPTEMBER LAST YEAR, Xu Yuyu from Linyi, East China's Shandong province, died of a heart stroke after phoning the police to report telephone fraudsters had cheated her of the money her family had saved to pay for her college fees. On Sept 15, seven suspects involved in the case were found guilty. Thepaper.cn comments:

The case has finally come to its end and justice has been done.

Some say the criminals were given too heavy penalties because one of them was given a life sentence, which is almost the highest penalty for telecom fraud, but that is not the case. According to a judicial explanation by the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the actions of the seven criminals resulted in a death so the case should be considered "especially serious" and those responsible deserve harsher penalties than normal.

The case reminds us that people's personal information is poorly protected. In this case, the criminals succeeded in cheating Xu by pretending to be staff of the local education bureau. They were able to cheat Xu because they knew her name, ID number, that she had been freshly admitted to college, even the fact that she had submitted an application to the local education bureau for a subsidy. It was the leaking of such personal information that enabled the criminals to trick her, and so ultimately cause her death.

Last November, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the nation's top legislature, passed the Cyberspace Security Law, which emphasized the need to protect personal information. A judicial explanation on how courts should handle such crimes was subsequently issued by the Supreme People's Court.

Xu's case has come to an end, but the campaign against crimes in cyberspace will continue. Cyberspace needs to be regulated and people's rights and information must be protected. We hope Xu's death will be the last of its kind. That will require the cooperation of the whole of society.