NBI narrows down list of 'Love Bug' hackers

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said yesterday it has narrowed down the list of suspects behind the destructive "love bug" virus after they had eliminated eight computer programmers.

Nelson Bartolome, executive officer of the NBI's anti-fraud and computer crimes division, said they had eliminated some of more than 40 names earlier listed as possibly involved in the creation and spread of the computer virus.

"We have narrowed it down to several suspects," Bartolome said, although he would not identify them.

Asked if two computer school students, Michael Buen and Onel de Guzman were among them, Bartolome just smiled.

But he said eight members of an underground computer group, GRAMMERSoft, had voluntarily been in for questioning and had been cleared.

He said the GRAMMERSoft members were "very cooperative. We did not subpoena them but they appeared here at the NBI."

Bartolome said they were not suspects but were "people who could possibly help us in building up a case against the real suspects."

A diskette seized by the NBI last week allegedly shows that Buen was the author of the virus while De Guzman and the GRAMMERSoft group had acted as references in its creation.

De Guzman has admitted he might have accidentally released the "ILOVEYOU" virus, but Buen has denied any role in its creation or distribution.

The virus hit millions of computers worldwide earlier this month, causing billions of dollars in damage.

Buen, De Guzman and the eight questioned by the NBI were all students at the AMA Computer College as well as members of GRAMMERSoft, a group which sold computer programs to small businesses and theses to students.

The virus diskette contained the names of 40 people but Bartolome said they were not all suspects.