Twenty years ago, a young Filipino programmer, Onel de Guzman, became the main suspect for an international criminal investigation. He was identified as the person who created and distributed the virus called ILOVEYOU, a computer worm that has infected tens of millions of computers globally since May 4, 2000, causing an “earthquake”. because of the level of impact and damage it causes.
It is estimated that ILOVEYOU malware has caused damage from 5.5 to 8.7 billion USD globally and lost more than 15 billion USD to handle the consequences. ILOVEYOU is considered one of the most dangerous computer viruses of all time.
Despite the evidence proving that Onel de Guzman is the culprit behind the ILOVEYOU malware, in the end, the young man This child was not punished for his actions. Now, at the age of 44, Guzman leads a quiet life and works as a repairman phone to make a living.
The “computer nightmare” has a romantic name ” ILOVEYOU”
On May 4, 2000, many Internet users received an email titled “ILOVEYOU” (I love you) with a text file attached with the name “LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.txt” (Love letter to you). In fact, this is a program executable file in .vbs format but impersonated as a .txt file name.
Because computers running Windows at that time would automatically hide the .vbs file format (because this was a regular executable file), the attachment would only display as “LOVE-LETTER-FOR- YOU.txt” made many email recipients think that this was just a regular .txt text file, so they downloaded and opened it without any doubt.
The name Onel de Guzman has become famous globally and first appeared before international media on 5/11. De Guzman is tight-lipped and communicates mainly through his lawyer. When asked if Guzman was the person who spread the ILOVEYOU virus globally, he replied: “Maybe.”
The investigation agency then presented a lot of evidence to proved that Onel de Guzman and Michael Buen, a classmate of de Guzman, were the two authors behind the ILOVEYOU virus. However, at that time Philippine law did not have any laws prohibiting writing and distributing computer malware, so both de Guzman and Buen were released without any punishment.
< p>To overcome this problem, the Philippine Congress then enacted Republic Act No. 8792, also known as the Electronic Commerce Law, in July 2000, just 2 months after the ILOVEYOU virus spread, with sanctions. acts of spreading computer viruses and sabotaging the Internet in the future.
The silent life of the “father” of computer viruses ILOVEYOU
It wasn’t until April 2019 that de Guzman first spoke out and admitted that he was the author behind the ILOVEYOU virus and that he did this alone without the help of Michael Buen as previously accused. .
Onel de Guzman said he created ILOVEYOU with the purpose of stealing login information to the Internet (dial-up network at that time) so he could access the Internet without being hacked. lost money. The ILOVEYOU virus was adapted by de Guzman from a malware he had previously built that only targeted Internet users at home.
Guzman shared that he initially intended to use the ILOVEYOU malware for His graduation thesis at AMA Computer University, however, this idea was later rejected by his teachers and even de Guzman was expelled just a few days before he graduated. Finally de Guzman decided to spread this type of malware on the Internet.
Onel de Guzman exploited a vulnerability security on Windows 95 operating system and Microsoft Outlook software were very commonly used at that time. De Guzman thinks that an email with a “smelly” subject line and content will easily trick gullible people into downloading malicious code and running it on their computers without suspecting anything.
“I realized that there are many people looking for love and a love letter, so I sent it to them,” Onel de Guzman shared.
On May 4, 2000, De Guzman sent the virus ILOVEYOU went to a stranger’s email address in Singapore and then went out drinking with friends. De Guzman himself could not have imagined that the virus he created would spread so strongly and cause such a “global earthquake”.
Only until de Guzman was informed by his mother reported that a hacker in Manila was being hunted. That’s when he realized he was in trouble. de Guzman’s mother took his computer and hid it, but this still could not escape the eyes of investigators because they found floppy disks containing the virus source code while searching de Guzman’s brother’s apartment. Guzman.
After a period of becoming the focus of international media attention, de Guzman returned to a quiet life. Now at the age of 44, Guzman owns a small phone repair shop in Manila and not many people know that he is the author of one of the most damaging computer malware in history.
Onel de Guzman said he felt sorry for creating the ILOVEYOU virus and causing serious damage globally.
“Sometimes I see pictures my photo on the Internet and friends were able to recognize me. I feel embarrassed and don’t want this,” de Guzman shared.
Exactly 2 decades after the ILOVEYOU virus was released, this malicious code has again become a topic of discussion in many areas. major technology forums recently when many people compared the spread of the ILOVEYOU virus to the SARS-Cov-2 virus at the present time. Both viruses have in common that they spread without limits, regardless of individual or collective wealth… and cause great economic damage. Many people hope that like ILOVEYOU, the SARS-CoV-2 virus will soon be stopped and there will be a method to treat it.
T.Thuy< /strong>
According to ComputerWeekly/VPN Overview
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