Justice slow in catching up with ‘Love Bug‘ suspect

It was considered the fastest spreading virus in computer history. But up to now, exactly a year after it was unleashed, the ILOVE-YOU virus continues to outpace law enforcers wanting to crack the whip on its alleged creator.

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said it is still fighting an uphill battle to make Onel de Guzman, the computer student suspected of creating the so-called Love Bug, pay for the damage the virus had caused.

Lawyer Efren Meneses, chief of the NBI’s Computer Crime Division, said De Guzman’s lawyer was given by the court to submit his final argument before the case is submitted for decision this month.

De Guzman, now 25, was a student of AMA Computer College when he was linked to the Love Bug. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation said a thesis he submitted for graduation contained a program very similar to the virus.

The Love Bug jammed millions of computers around the world and caused some $10 billion in damage. It first hit companies in Asia on the morning of May 4 and moved through Europe and the United States as computer users opened their early morning e-mails.

The virus appeared as an "ILOVEYOU" e-mail greeting, paired by an attachment under various names, including "LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU," which launched a "worm" program that corrupted the e-mail address book of each victim and sent automatic messages to each address to spread the infection.

It destroyed various types of files, including operating systems, and companies to shut down their e-mail systems for hours to arrest the infection.

Initially, experts thought a foreigner may have made the virus and launched it from the Philippines where victims’ e-mails are directed after infection. However, they zeroed in on De Guzman after they discovered his thesis which his school had rejected.

The NBI charged De Guzman with theft and violation of RA 8484 or the law that prohibits anyone from unauthorized access of any electronic device. It was not able to charge him with cybercrime, since the Electronic Commerce Law, which applies to his alleged offense, was still being discussed by lawmakers when the Love Bug epidemic erupted.

De Guzman has reportedly gone back to his home province in Calbayog, Samar, where he busies himself with occasional programming jobs for friends.

His lawyer Rolando Quimbo said he is being prodded by his mother to finish school. "I think he will go back to his school," Quimbo said. Apparently, De Guzman has not taken any of the regular jobs offered to him when he became the country’s most popular computer programmer last year.

Meneses said they are hoping to win the case against De Guzman. Whatever happens, though, he said the Love Bug has already served its purpose of opening the eyes of the world to the reality of cybercrime.

"Because of the Love Bug, computer users around the world now are more careful," he said.