DATE=5/14/2000
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=LOVE BUG - PHILIPPINES
NUMBER=5-46311
BYLINE=AMY BICKERS
DATELINE=MANILA
CONTENT=

VOICED AT:


INTRO: Across the Philippines, people are expressing 
surprise and dismay that a 23-year old college drop-
out who lives in Manila may have launched the 
most potent virus in cyber history. As Amy Bickers 
reports from Manila, the case has raised concerns 
about the ease with which viruses can be created and 
the lack of legislation for dealing with cybercrime. 

TEXT:  As investigators pour over evidence in the 
search for more clues, the nation is trying to come to 
grips with the fact that the ruinous Love Bug virus 
may be the work of one or more computer students.

Last week, 23-year old computer student Onel de Guzman 
admitted he may have accidentally released the 
program, which struck e-mail systems from Tokyo to 
London to New York. He is a possible suspect along 
with at least three other people. Police are scouring 
the diskettes they took from Mr. de Guzman's 
apartment to try to gather proof. The computer 
allegedly used to launch the virus is missing and 
officials have said that a lack of evidence could 
hamper their work.

Alan Robles is the editor of a Hot Manila, a website 
devoted to current affairs in the Philippines. He says 
that there is a thriving community of virus writers 
in the Philippines.  But he notes that the ILOVEYOU 
bug was able to go so far so fast because of its now 
famous subject heading. 

/// ROBLES ACT ///

Here, people were duped by opening the file on the 
pretense that it was a 
love letter. My point of view is that a person who 
thinks of love as an angle to con people into doing 
something can only be a Filipino, since we are 
supposed to be the Latins of Asia. 

/// END ACT ///

Mr. Robles says many people here are embarrassed about 
the scandal, which has caused up to ten billions of 
dollars in damage for business and governments 
around the world through the destruction of countless 
computer files. 

Among those most concerned is Manuel Abad, Executive 
Vice President of the A-M-A computer school where Onel 
de Guzman was a student. 

/// END ACT ///

It was a surprise to us. It was a surprise to us that 
how come a student like this would do a program that 
would go all over the world. I am more 
surprised about the motive. The motive for doing that, 
to launch a virus, that would exponentially increase, 
and penetrate practically all systems, to my last 
recollection in the reports, it could have affected 45 
million internet users.

/// END ACT ///

Mr. de Guzman failed to graduate after his thesis 
proposal was rejected. It was based on a program 
designed to steal computer passwords and has similar 
characteristics to the love-bug virus. 

The school says that it is launching disciplinary 
proceedings against Mr. de Guzman that could stop him 
from returning to classes and eventually graduating, 
as he has said he would like to do. School authorities 
also say they are probing GRAMMERSoft, a shadowy 
underground group of computer students. Members 
allegedly took fees for doing other pupils' 
assignments. The GRAMMERSoft name appears in the 
program for the Love Bug virus. Police have not yet 
disclosed the identities of members other than Mr. de 
Guzman.

Carlos Caabay is the Deputy Director of the National 
Bureau of Investigation, the country's detective 
agency. He acknowledges that a lack of laws in the 
Philippines covering cybercrime has slowed their work 
and could have led to the destruction of key evidence. 
The country has no law which specifically makes 
the dissemination of a computer virus illegal. 

/// CAABAY ACT ///

I think this is an eye opener and a test case that 
will be considered by our congress in the passage of a 
law that will cover this kind of computer crimes.

// END ACT ///

Mr. Caabay says that his agency believes that Mr. de 
Guzman sent the virus into cyberspace to avenge his 
failure to graduate. But a dearth of evidence may stop 
them from proving it. 

The Philippine Congress is now moving towards enacting 
legislation that will cover information technology, so 
that the next time a computer bug bites, they 
will be able to take swift action. (SIGNED)

NEB/AB/PLM








14-May-2000 02:56 AM EDT (14-May-2000 0656 UTC)
NNNN

Source: Voice of America
.