PHILIPPINES: "LOVE BUG" COMPUTER VIRUS LATEST

(11 May 2000) Tagalog/Eng/Nat A Filipino computer student says he may have accidentally released the "Love Bug" virus which crippled computer e-mail systems around the world last week. The student, who had been missing for several days, held a news conference in the Filipino capital Manila. It's estimated the virus caused at least 15 (b) billion U-S dollars damage around the world. Onel de Guzman is one of two students at a computer college in Manila who wrote computer programs and who is now at the centre of the search for the origin of the "I LOVE YOU" virus. The virus brought e-mail traffic in major government and corporate computer systems in more than 20 countries to a halt. The students, both aged 23, are members of GRAMMERSoft, an underground computer group that wrote and sold thesis projects to other students. The name GRAMMERSoft reportedly appears in the computer code in the Love Bug virus. De Guzman said he had discussed his thesis with other members of the group, and his lawyer suggested that others may have participated in the writing of the 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. The other programmer Michael Buen, who was a close friend of de Guzman, did graduate from the college. When asked if it was possible that he pressed a wrong key and sent the virus by mistake de Guzman nodded. Guzman's lawyer said his client really did not understand the consequences of his actions. SOUNDBITE: (English) "He is not really aware that the acts imputed to him were indeed done by him . But he admits that he has been using the Internet extensively. So if you ask me whether or not he was aware of the consequences I would say that he is not aware and he was not even, he did not even know that the actions on his part would really come to the results which have been reported." SUPER CAPTION: de Guzman's lawyer Rolando Quimbo De Guzman then seemed to suggest the Internet was open to everybody to use. SOUNDBITE: (English translation of de Guzman's answer) "The Internet is supposed to be educational so it should be for free." SUPER CAPTION: de Guzman's lawyer Rolando Quimbo De Guzman was then asked what he felt about the damage brought by the virus. SOUNDBITE: (Tagalog) "Nothing, nothing." SUPER CAPTION: Onel de Guzman, Computer Virus Suspect When asked why someone would release something like the "lovebug", Guzman said such an action would probably have been unintentional. SOUNDBITE: (Tagalog) "It's probably just youthful exuberance - whoever did that may have done it unintentionally." SUPER CAPTION: Onel de Guzman, Computer Virus Suspect De Guzman said he sometimes spent four or five hours daily on the Internet but wouldn't talk about the computer he used. The Filipino authorities say they want to question de Guzman and Buen as well as nearly a dozen other young computer hackers. Many people in the Philippines seem to care little about the virus, which posed few problems in what is a relatively uncomputerized country. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...