DATE=6/29/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=PHILIPPINES / LOVE BUG INDICTMENT (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-263883
BYLINE=ALISHA RYU
DATELINE=HONG KONG
CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO:  Philippines authorities have filed criminal 
charges against the computer programming student 
suspected of unleashing the "I LOVE YOU" computer 
virus on the world last month.  VOA's Alisha Ryu has 
the details from our Asia News Center in Hong Kong.   

TEXT:  Investigators say 23 year-old Onel de Guzman 
faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison if he is 
found guilty of releasing one of the most destructive 
computer viruses ever created.  

On May 4th, the so-called "ILOVEYOU" virus infected 
thousands of computers worldwide, overloading e-mail 
systems and causing an estimated 10 billion dollars in 
damage to businesses.

Officials at the National Bureau of Investigation had 
to delay formally indicting Mr. de Guzman until the 
Philippines government passed laws governing cyber 
crime.  The country had no legal protections in place 
until last week.

But investigators say Mr. de Guzman cannot be 
retroactively charged under the new law.  Instead he 
will be charged with theft and violation of a law that 
covers credit card fraud.  

Mr. De Guzman was arrested on May 8th after Internet 
service providers traced the virus to a telephone line 
in his apartment.  Agents seized 17 computer 
diskettes, telephones and computer accessories but 
found no computer or modem.

Mr. de Guzman has told investigators that he may have 
released the virus by accident but has refused to say 
whether he created it.  He failed to graduate earlier 
this year from a Philippines computer college after 
professors rejected his thesis proposal for a program 
to steal Internet passwords - a feature of the so-
called Love Bug virus. (Signed) 

NEB/AR/JO/TVM/KL



29-Jun-2000 07:25 AM EDT (29-Jun-2000 1125 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America
.