Philippine college says students' work resembles 'Love Bug'

[William Knowles <wk () C4I ORG>]

http://www.techserver.com/noframes/story/0,2294,500202605-500280434-501497354-0,00.html

By OLIVER TEVES, Associated Press

MANILA, Philippines (May 10, 2000 2:59 p.m. EDT
http://www.nandotimes.com) - Officials from a Philippine computer
college disclosed Wednesday that two students there developed programs
that may have been combined to produce the "ILOVEYOU" e-mail virus.
Investigators said they wanted to question them.

It was too soon to say whether the students from Manila's AMA Computer
College, Onel A. de Guzman and Michael Buen, will be considered
suspects, authorities said.

"We are still looking at the data," Elfren L. Meneses Jr., chief of
the Anti-Fraud and Computer Crimes Division of the National Bureau of
Investigation, said Wednesday night.

He spoke just hours after officials from AMA Computer College released
information about thesis projects by the two students. Their work
appeared to have elements of the "Love Bug" and could have been used
to create the virus, college officials told reporters.

Wednesday's developments were the latest in an international search
for whomever is behind the virus that sent a flood of e-mails with the
subject line "ILOVEYOU" coursing through computer systems worldwide
beginning last week. When opened, the virus can destroy graphics and
other saved files. Experts say it may end up costing as much as $10
billion, mostly from lost productivity.

The investigation, which has focused on the Philippines, has grown
more complex by the day.

The first suspect identified by investigators was Manila bank employee
Reonel Ramones. He was arrested Monday, then released while
investigators searched for evidence among 17 computer diskettes seized
in his apartment. His girlfriend also was sought for questioning.
Investigators said they traced the virus to a telephone line in his
apartment.

But de Guzman, 23, lives in the same apartment building, and Ramones'
relatives have said they suspect de Guzman is responsible. And de
Guzman's sister, Irene de Guzman, is Ramones' girlfriend - the same
woman investigators said they were seeking.

Justice Secretary Artemio Tuquero acknowledged Wednesday that Ramones
may have been "a fall guy."

De Guzman and Buen, also 23, were members of an underground computer
group called GRAMMERSoft, which provided programs to small- and
medium-size businesses and also wrote and sold thesis projects to
computer students, said Manuel Abad, executive vice president at AMA
college.

De Guzman's thesis proposal at AMA had the ability to steal computer
passwords. The idea was rejected on Feb. 24, with a thesis reviewer at
the school noting "This is illegal" and "We do not produce burglars."

A copy of de Guzman's thesis proposal was obtained by The Associated
Press on Wednesday. In the proposal, de Guzman wrote that the software
"will be helpful to a lot of people, especially Internet users, to get
Windows passwords such as Internet accounts to spend more time on
Internet without paying."

Buen's program, which was accepted as thesis material, was able to
create multiple copies of computer files, Abad said.

Buen's mother, Emma Buen, said her son was not involved and only had
an obsolete computer that he didn't even use to access the Internet.
"We don't aspire to be famous," she told a reporter who went to the
family's home in Manila.

FBI agents have made copies of both men's diskettes and are studying
them in Manila, Meneses said.


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