INTRO:

What is I LOVE YOU VIRUS?

On May 5, 2000, the Love Letter Virus, also known as the Iloveyou virus, ILOVEYOU, and
Love Letter, was a computer worm that originated in the Philippines - infecting computers
running in the Microsoft Windows operating system. It was sent via e-mail, with the subject line
"ILOVEYOU" and the attachment provided was "LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.txt.vbs." (Or
Visual Basic Script) … When the attachment was opened, a Visual Basic script was launched,
infecting the computer. Many receivers were deceived since the file's extension was hidden by
Microsoft Windows, and it was misunderstood for a normal text file. The script then sent itself to
everyone on the victim's contact list, changing the Windows Registry to run the worm at startup,
and replaced the contents in numerous computer files with copies of itself, including JPEG
photos and Word documents.

/ Origination:

ONEL DEGUZMAN / AMA COMPUTER COLLEGE

So… Paano nga ba binuo o nag simula ang virus na nag ngangalang I LOVE YOU VIRUS?

During the college days of Onel De Guzman, Student of AMA Computer College, Mayroon
silang thesis, and pinropose ni De Guzman sakanyang guro ang isang research na nag iintroduce
ng isang Trojan Virus, - ( Ang Trojan Virus ay nag I impersonate bilang isang legitimate na
software kung saan ay inaatake nito ang mga private data– example nito ay ang mga naka saved
na passwords sa isang computer and maari itong masira at manakaw). That time, he was
struggling to pay for Internet access, he created the computer worm intending to steal other users'
passwords, which he could use to log in to their Internet accounts without needing to pay for the
service. The said thesis proposal was voided by the teachers of De Guzman since sino ba namang
guro ang kukunsitihin ang kanilang estudyante na gumawa ng isang mapanirang computer
virus?? ---- and later on, Onel De Guzman dropped out of college during his final year.

//

The worm originated in the Pandacan neighborhood of Manila in the Philippines on May 4,
2000, Ito ay kumalat sa Hong Kong, sa Europe, at pati sa United States. The outbreak was later
estimated to have caused $5.5–8.7 billion US DOLLARS in damages worldwide, and estimated
to cost US$10–15 billion DOLLARS to remove the worm. Within ten days, over fifty million
infections had been reported, and it is estimated that 10% of Internet-connected computers in the
world had been affected. The time and effort required removing the virus and retrieving the datas
from backups was highlighted as the main source of the damage. There are some of troubles as
well in, CIA, the Pentagon, and the British Parliament. To protect themselves, large corporations
decided to completely shut down their mail systems. It was one of the most disastrous computer-
related catastrophes in history at the time.
----
During the outbreak, the ISP or Internet Service Provider that has been used by De Guzman in
creating the virus was Sky Internet, and had been reported receiving numerous contacts from
European computer users.. alleging that the I LOVE YOU VIRUS had been sent via the ISP's
servers. This led to the NBI investigating the whereabouts of the Creators of the Virus.

------

On May 5th, year 2000, a day after releasing the virus, two young Filipino programmers named
Reonel Ramones and Onel De Guzman became the primary suspects of a criminal investigation.
After surveillance and investigation of Sky Internet, by the lead investigator, Darwin Bawasanta
- the NBI tracked a phone number to Ramones' residence in Manila. Ramones' house was
searched, and he was detained and put under investigation by the Department of Justice.

///
Government Response – creation of law

However, during that time, the government’s response was uncertain. The NBI were unsure what
crime they will file against the suspects - since there were no laws in the Philippines against
creating or writing malware at the time. There were suggestions po kung ano ang pwede nilang
ipatong na kaso sa suspects. One suggested that they can be charged with violating the Republic
Act 8484 or the Access Device Regulation Act, a law designed mainly to penalise credit card
fraud, but that wasn’t the case of the creator of the I LOVE YOU VIRUS since their objectives
are not aiming for the details of the victims’ credit cards. Another suggestion was that they can
be charged with malicious mischief, a felony (under the Philippines Revised Penal Code of
1932) involving damage to property. This suggestion was more accurate than the other one as
what De Guzman did – damaging other’s property but it was not specific about computer viruses,
yet, the drawback here was that one of its elements was intent to damage, and De Guzman had
claimed during custodial investigations that he have unwittingly released the worm virus. This
was assented by the lawyer of De Guzman at a press conference organized by their group.

And After thorough proceedings, the court concluded that there were no strong laws to file
against the suspects so -- binasura po ng korte at pinalaya din sina Reonel Ramones at Onel De
Guzman na primary suspects.

And then 2 months after the outbreak of the “I LOVE YOU VIRUS”, the Philippine Congress
enacted the Republic Act No. 8792, also known as the E-Commerce Law to discourage future
iterations of such activity and also to address the legislative deficiency of the Philippine
Government during the time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ILOVEYOU

---

/////////////////////////////

REPUBLIC ACT 8792

Date of Issuance – June 8, 2000

On 14 June 2000, President Joseph E. Estrada signed into law R.A. 8792 "An Act Providing For
The Recognition And Use of Electronic Commercial And Non-Commercial Transactions,
Penalties For Unlawful Use Thereof, And Other Purposes, or also known as the "Electronic
Commerce Act."

Atty. Disini (Atty. Jose Jesus M. Disini Jr.), a Managing Partner in the law firm 0fDisini &
Disini, and is the principal

drafter of the Implementing Rules and Regulations of Republic Act 8792, otherwise known

as the E-Commerce Law.

And Ms. Tocal is the founder of the Philippine Internet Commerce

Society and was actively involved in lobbying for the passage of the E-commerce Law.

//

He was actively involved in the lobbying efforts for the passage of the e-Commerce Act
(Republic Act No. 8792). Thereafter, he became the Principal Drafter of the Implementing Rules
& Regulations for the E-Commerce Act and a Co-Drafter of the Rules on Electronic Evidence
The issuance date of the E-Commerce Law was on June 8, 2000. And it was signed into Law by
the President during that time, Joseph Estrada into R.A 8792 On June 14, 2000.

"An Act Providing For The Recognition And Use of Electronic Commercial And Non-
Commercial Transactions, Penalties For Unlawful Use Thereof, And Other Purposes, or also
known as the "Electronic Commerce Act."

The Authors were:

Atty. Disini (Atty. Jose Jesus M. Disini Jr.), he was the principal drafter of the Implementing
Rules and Regulations of Republic Act 8792, otherwise known as the E-Commerce Law.

And Ms. Tocal (Janette Toral) is the founder of the Philippine Internet Commerce Society and
was actively involved in lobbying for the passage of the E-commerce Law.