The word I love you could be the sweetest word you'll ever hear from your loved ones. But that is not the case for millions of people who were victimized by this virus. What virus is this, who made it, and why it is considered as one of the most destructive computer viruses in the world?
Onel de Guzman and Reonel Ramones were typical students who want to finish their studies. They were studying at AMA Computer College. Like any other student, Onel and Reonel need to present a thesis to be able to graduate from the said school. In their thesis, they propose a trojan virus, a trojan virus is a malware that is often disguised as legitimate software. Trojans can be employed by cyber-thieves and hackers trying to gain access from the users' system. But the teachers did not approve Onel's proposal. Who would allow such a thing, right? So before the school year-end, Onel de Guzman dropped out of school.
It said that from this time frame, the I love you virus was formed. It was also popularly known as Love Bug or Loveletter. This computer virus did not solely affect the Philippines but all over the world on May 5, 2000. This virus is an email attachment entitled LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU. Who would not fall from that?
What can this virus possibly do to our computer if you were one of the unlucky people who opened this virus? The visual basic script will be activated, VBS are codes that command our computer what to do. If this script runs on your computer, it will delete random files saved from your computer. It will also command your computer to open your Windows address book and use this as a way to spread the virus from all your email contacts and this is the reason how it spread from millions of computer not just in the Philippines but also around the world.
The place where it all started was in Pandacan Manila, but at that time not all household has a computer so the virus spread slowly, one house at a time. After it spread from household computers, It attacks corporate emails system owned by huge companies which hold numerous emails from different countries. This triggers the worldwide outbreak of the virus.
The first international country attack by this virus is Hongkong. It affects millions of computers. Next is Europe and spread throughout the United States. This computer outbreak resulted in $10 million in damages all over the world, and this is only initial damage, not to mention the process of wiping out the virus which costs $15 billion. And this is only 10 days after the virus was launched. This virus affected almost 16 million computers, 10% of the computers connected to the internet at that time.
The process of stopping and wiping out this virus is not easy as the United States decides to close all email link system to avoid it from entering the main system of the Pentagon. During that time I love you virus was the most destructive computer virus.
During that time, Onel de Guzman and Reonel romanes, their internet service provider was SKy internet. The said ISP received numerous calls from European computer users. Sky internet was dragged with the issue because they were the ISP of Onel and his friend. They created a task force lead by Darwin Bawasanta, from there, Onel de Guzman and Reonel romanes names surfaced. They tracked down the 2 friends' apartments.
But here is the twist of the story, although they captured the 2 culprits, they do not know what case is to be imposed because at that time there is no law referring to the crime of the two. Someone suggested it is under RA 8484 or Access Device Regulations Act, but this law was made for Credit Card fraud which is obviously what Onel did was not steal information from credit cards. The other one was Malicious Mischief under Philippine Revised Penal Code 1932 involving damage to property, although it is true that there were damaged properties this does not refer to viruses. Thorough investigations were made by authorities. Based on Onel's statement, He did not know the consequences of his actions and it was not his intention to spread the virus globally. After thorough investigations and trial, the court dropped the case.
Two months after the virus spread, the Philippine Government act fast and created a law which is RA8792 or E-Commerce Law. This will be used for crimes similar to Onels.
But where is Onel de Guzman now? Some said he was hired by the CIA and the NSA which is based in the US, and some said he was in the Pentagon to protect the US from virus attacks. But there are no proofs of this.
In the world of hacking, there is what they called a black, gray, and white hat. White hat refers to hackers who were hired by the agency to hack their websites. In this process, they will know how to protect their websites. While the black hat is the counterpart of the white hat, they will hack for personal reasons and for money. And lastly, the gray hat, they were neutral. They either use their skills to help or to extract money from others.
Image source: Google
It's amazing. It only proves how talented Filipinos are. But such talent should be used in doing something good.