Student says he may have accidentally transmitted `Love Bug' virus

[William Knowles <wk () C4I ORG>]

http://www.techserver.com/noframes/story/0,2294,500203055-500281301-501504037-0,00.html

By DIRK BEVERIDGE, Associated Press

MANILA, Philippines (May 11, 2000 3:48 p.m. EDT
http://www.nandotimes.com) - Nervous and sweating in the glare of
television cameras, a Filipino computer student said Thursday he may
have accidentally released the "Love Bug" virus that crippled computer
e-mail systems worldwide.

The student, Onel A. de Guzman, who had been missing for several days,
would not say whether he had written the "ILOVEYOU" virus.

"It is one of the questions we would rather leave for the future," de
Guzman said, speaking in Tagalog. His lawyer, Rolando Quimbo,
translated into English.

Investigators said they would like to talk with de Guzman and others,
but have not said whether he is suspected of any crime.

De Guzman said he was unsure whether he had sent the virus into
cyberspace. But asked whether he might accidentally have done so, de
Guzman replied, "It is possible."

De Guzman, 23, also acknowledged that "youthful exuberance" may have
contributed to the launch of the virus that within hours became a
global e-mail menace that may end up costing governments and
corporations billions of dollars.

"He is not really aware that the act imputed to him was done by him,"
Quimbo told reporters. De Guzman sat at his side, wearing dark glasses
and dabbing sweat from his face, which he partially covered with his
handkerchief.

De Guzman is one of two students at the Philippines' AMA Computer
College who wrote computer programs that have become a focus of the
search for the origin of the "ILOVEYOU" virus.

The two are close friends, a school official said today.

The other programmer, Michael Buen, graduated May 5 from AMA in
metropolitan Manila, and completed his studies with a thesis that
acknowledged de Guzman.

The director of the Philippine National Bureau of Investigation,
Federico Opinion, said separately Thursday that authorities want to
question de Guzman and Buen as well as nearly a dozen other young
computer hackers.

Quimbo said his client has no need to speak to investigators unless
formally subpoenaed.

De Guzman is a member of GRAMMERSoft, an underground computer group
that wrote and sold thesis projects to other students. De Guzman said
there were about nine members of the group - but that Buen was not one
of them, a statement contradicting what officials from AMA college had
said earlier.

The name GRAMMERSoft appears in the computer code in the Love Bug
virus.

De Guzman's thesis project, designed to steal passwords from other
computer users, was rejected as a form of high-tech theft, so he did
not graduate. School officials have said the two thesis projects could
have been combined to create the virus.

A copy of Buen's thesis was obtained today by The Associated Press.

The virus broke out one day before the college held its graduation
ceremony, snarling e-mail traffic in major government and corporate
computer systems in more than 20 countries.

Asked what he felt about the damage caused by the virus, de Guzman
replied, "Nothing."

He said he did not remember where he was on May 4, the day the virus
erupted.

De Guzman said he sometimes spent four or five hours daily on the
Internet, although he declined to offer any information about the
computer he used.

He said he had discussed his thesis with other members of the
GRAMMERSoft group, and his lawyer suggested that others many have
participated in the writing of the virus.

Pressed by reporters to say whether de Guzman had written the virus,
his lawyer replied: "We can go as far as saying that he did prepare
the thesis proposal but ... the knowledge of its contents were not
limited to Onel."

The speaker of the Philippine House of Representatives called the case
an example of misguided genius.

Manuel Villar Jr. said the authors of the virus should have worked
equally hard on a legitimate program so they could "get rich and bring
recognition to our country," The Philippine Star reported.

It quoted Villar as saying the virus - which stunned experts with the
speed at which it spread - shows that the Philippines possesses
world-class information technology skills.

De Guzman lives in an apartment with his sister and her boyfriend,
Reonel Ramones, a bank worker who was arrested in the case on Monday
but then freed the next day because of a lack of evidence.

NBI and FBI officials were still scanning through computer diskettes
seized in a raid on the apartment but have declined to comment on
whether they have uncovered any useful information.

The FBI has sought to maintain a low profile in the investigation,
which has been difficult for Philippine officials because of a lack of
equipment, expertise and a scarcity of local laws that apply to
computer crime. Many people in the Philippines seem to care little
about the virus, which posed few problems in the relatively
uncomputerized country but stirred cyber chaos in the wealthy West.

Some estimates have put the worldwide cost of the virus at up to $10
billion, much of that due to lost productivity.

"We're cooperating with the Philippine NBI," said Thomas Skipper,
spokesman of the U.S. Embassy. "They have the lead on this."


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