I LOVE YOU COMPUTER VIRUS
“I LOVE YOU COMPUTER VIRUS” Onel De Guzman’s “I LOVE YOU” Virus, also referred to as “Love Letter”, was a computer worm that attacked tens of millions of Windows personal computers on and after May 5
2000 (Philippine Time), when it started spreading as an email message with the subject line
“ILOVEYOU” and the attachment “LOVELETTERFORYOU.txt.vbs”.
Opening the attachment activated the “Visual Basic Script”. The worm did damage on the local machine overwriting image files, and sent a copy of itself to the first 50 contacts in email. The virus, unleashed May 4, rapidly replicated itself via email, overloading corporate email systems in many countries and causing damage estimated at up to $10 billion. Computer forensic experts dissected the worm and discovered the codeword ‘Barok’ among its architecture. A professor at the AMA Computer College in the Philippines recognized the codeword, having seen it in a program submitted as an assignment by student Onel de Guzman.
Police searched Guzman’s apartment and discovered discs relating to the Love Bug’s creation, implicating Guzman as the perpetrator. Until President Joseph Estrada signed a new law in June covering electronic commerce and computer hacking, the Philippines had no laws specifically against computer crimes. The new legislation, however, cannot be applied retroactively to the “Love Bug” creator, and investigators instead charged de Guzman with traditional crimes such as theft and violation of a law that normally covers credit card fraud. The National Bureau of Investigation had waited more than a month to file the charges against de Guzman while it attempted to find applicable laws Prosecutors dismissed all charges filed against a former computer college student accused of having released the “ILOVEYOU” computer virus that crippled email systems worldwide. The
2000 (Philippine Time), when it started spreading as an email message with the subject line
“ILOVEYOU” and the attachment “LOVELETTERFORYOU.txt.vbs”.
Opening the attachment activated the “Visual Basic Script”. The worm did damage on the local machine overwriting image files, and sent a copy of itself to the first 50 contacts in email. The virus, unleashed May 4, rapidly replicated itself via email, overloading corporate email systems in many countries and causing damage estimated at up to $10 billion. Computer forensic experts dissected the worm and discovered the codeword ‘Barok’ among its architecture. A professor at the AMA Computer College in the Philippines recognized the codeword, having seen it in a program submitted as an assignment by student Onel de Guzman.
Police searched Guzman’s apartment and discovered discs relating to the Love Bug’s creation, implicating Guzman as the perpetrator. Until President Joseph Estrada signed a new law in June covering electronic commerce and computer hacking, the Philippines had no laws specifically against computer crimes. The new legislation, however, cannot be applied retroactively to the “Love Bug” creator, and investigators instead charged de Guzman with traditional crimes such as theft and violation of a law that normally covers credit card fraud. The National Bureau of Investigation had waited more than a month to file the charges against de Guzman while it attempted to find applicable laws Prosecutors dismissed all charges filed against a former computer college student accused of having released the “ILOVEYOU” computer virus that crippled email systems worldwide. The