'Love Bug' accidental, AMA student claims

Unwitting saboteur or mischievous activist?

An AMA Computer College student said yesterday he may have accidentally released the "Love Bug" virus which crippled computer systems worldwide.

Onel de Guzman, who had been missing for several days, appeared in a news conference at a law office in Quezon City with his sister Irene and his lawyer Rolando Quimbo.

Wearing dark glasses, the 23-year-old student claimed he was unsure whether he had released the "ILOVEYOU" virus into cyberspace. He did not directly say whether he had written the program that created the virus.

"He is not really aware that the act imputed to him was done by him," Quimbo told reporters.

De Guzman insisted that his only intention in proposing a thesis on "Internet theft" was to help more underprivileged people gain access to the Internet.

"The Internet is educational, and it should be free," he said.

When asked whether he might have accidentally released the virus, De Guzman replied: "It is possible."

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said they would drop charges against the initial suspect, Reonel Ramones, and concentrate on De Guzman.

"We are going to zero in on him and file charges of malicious mischief and violation of the Access Devices Regulations Act," an agent of the NBI anti-fraud and computer crimes division said.

The said law bans the use of devices that break into telecommunications systems and illegally use credit card numbers and account passwords.

De Guzman is one of two AMA students who wrote computer programs that have become the focus of the search for the origin of the "Love Bug."

The other student was identified as Michael Buen, a close friend of De Guzman.

Buen, who graduated May 5 from AMA, completed his studies with a thesis that acknowledged De Guzman.

De Guzman's thesis project, designed to steal passwords from other computer users, was rejected by his professors as a form of high-tech theft, so he did not graduate.

Buen, on the other hand, wrote a thesis on a computer program that duplicates itself.

AMA senior vice president Karim Bangcola said if the password-stealing and program-duplication proposals by the students were "merged," it would have the same features as the "ILOVEYOU" virus.

The virus broke out one day before the college held its graduation ceremony, snarling e-mail traffic in major government and corporate computer systems in more than 20 countries.

When opened, the virus can destroy graphics and other saved files and steal passwords. Several variations have appeared, one posing as an e-mail joke and another purporting to be a receipt for a Mother's Day gift.

The two AMA students are members of GRAMMERSoft, an underground computer group that wrote and sold thesis projects to other students. The name GRAMMERSoft reportedly appears in the computer code in the "Love Bug" virus.

The chief of the NBI's computer crimes division, Elfren Meneses Jr., said Wednesday investigators want to talk to the computer students but it was too soon to say whether they are suspects.

De Guzman lives in an apartment with his sister Irene and her boyfriend Ramones, a bank employee who was arrested Monday in relation to the case but freed the next day because of lack of evidence.

NBI and US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officials were still scanning through computer diskettes seized in a raid on the apartment but have declined to comment on whether they have uncovered any useful information.

The FBI has sought to maintain a low profile in the probe, which has been difficult for Philippine investigators who are hindered by a lack of equipment, few specialist police and a scarcity of local laws that apply to computer crime.

Many people in the Philippines seem to care little about the virus, which posed few problems in the relatively uncomputerized country although it stirred cyber chaos in the wealthy West.

Some estimates have put the worldwide cost of the virus at up to $10 billion, much of that due to lost productivity.

"We're cooperating with the Philippine NBI," said Thomas Skipper, spokesman of the US Embassy. "They have the lead on this."

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya -- Relatives of Reonel Ramones residing in this town could not help but shake their heads in disbelief as they watched him being arrested on TV.

The Reonel they know is very different from the man being portrayed by media as the hacker who unleashed a computer virus that created havoc on computers worldwide.

Reonel's parents, Alfredo, 57 and Teresita, 55, were still in shock over the arrest, and refused to give statements to reporters. The father is an employee of the Bureau of Internal Revenue while the mother is a public school teacher here.

The couple was about to travel to Tuguegarao Monday night for Alfredo's eye checkup but immediately had to change plans following the arrest of their son.

Relatives condemned the way the 27-year-old bank employee was dragged by agents and treated like a common criminal.

The elder of two children, Reonel grew up in Barangay Bonfal in this town and studied at the Bonfal Pilot Central School and at St. Mary's University. He received a commerce degree at San Beda College in Manila and eventually landed a job at Equitable Bank.

Those who knew him said Reonel lived a very simple life.

"He comes home every Holy Week and Christmas to help his parents run their farm in the village and to visit his friends here," said Dolores Pinaroc, 57, Reonel's godmother.

His uncle, Cornelio Villanueva, 58, said the boy had no delinquent record in school.

"He is a bright and intelligent boy and incapable of doing those things. I am appealing to the authorities to speed up the investigation so that he could be exonerated from the public shame and emotional anguish," he said.