The worm thrived and became the first truly global computer virus. As a result, ILOVEYOU had the opportunity to run its course. Further, the idea of a computer virus spread by email was not at the top of an average user’s mind. The concept of the internet was still relatively new. Because the virus used user’s address books, the emails appeared to come from someone the victim knew and were therefore regarded as “safe”. Soon, the virus spread from Manila to Hong Kong, and further westwards to Europe and the United States. Windows controlled about 95% of the personal computer market at the time.
Moreover, the worm was written for Microsoft Windows. Also, the subject line and topic of the email apparently struck a chord. However, it had never been used on such a scale or for a virus. The VBScript Onel de Guzman had used, was not new. Finally, the computer worm scraped Windows passwords and sent them to a server in the Philippines. Simultaneously, it added a registry entry to startup automatically on boot. Next, it overwrote and deleted images and other files on the victim’s hard drive. In the body a short message said: “Kindly check the attached LOVELETTER coming from me.” When email users opened the file, the virus quickly took control.įirst, the virus started with sending copies of itself to the first 50 addresses in the user’s address book.
The virus spread through an email with the file attachment “”. Only because, at that time, there was no law covering computer hacking. Despite mountains of evidence, all charges against Onel de Guzman were eventually dropped. Until today, the Love Bug worm remains one of the farthest-reaching computer viruses of all times.
Why? He appeared to have set lose the so called ILOVEYOU computer virus, a worm that infected tens of millions of Windows computers around the world in May 2000. 20 years ago, a young Filipino programmer, Onel de Guzman, was about to become the prime suspect in a criminal investigation.
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