[VIRAL FLASHBACK] How the ILOVEYOU Virus Became the First Major Virus Outbreak Among Windows PCs

In May 2000, the internet witnessed a shocking event on a global scale. Many fell victim to the ILOVEYOU virus, which damaged more than 50 million files and attacked 10 percent of all the internet-connected computers in the world.

But in truth, the story of this iconic virus is shockingly simple. A student in the Philippines made it.

Who Made the ILOVEYOU Virus?

Onel De Guzman, a mere college student of AMA Computer College, had a proposal for his thesis. He introduced a malware that was capable of taking passwords through the internet. Unfortunately, the proposal was rejected and scrapped by his professors. But this did not deter him from experimenting with his coding abilities.

Armed with some knowledge and computer skills, De Guzman developed a virus with the subject header "I Love You." This would later be known as the iconic "Love Bug."

It is worth emphasizing that there were not many spam attacks at that time. So people were genuinely curious about messages with the topic "I Love You" because they thought it was sent by friends or family members.

How It Started

According to analysts, this virus was pretty straightforward. It attracted victims to open an email containing the malicious program, which then duplicates and spreads itself through contacts on Microsoft outlook.

BBC said that in 30 minutes since the start of the attack, the number of spam emails that Star Lab's filtering service has blocked spiked from 40-50 to 450. This number eventually rose to more than 13,000 in less than a day.

Back then, the internet was barely accessible, so this number of cases was considered outrageous. However, the virus did not stop there and proceeded to infect more than 45 million computers within 24 hours. It even breached U.S. government offices such as the Pentagon!

In an article published by Forbes, they said Pentagon and several other offices had to close down their email systems to prevent the further spread of virus.

De Guzman later explained to BBC that this virus was initially meant to circulate within the Philippines to steal internet access within the local area.

But his code featured an auto-spreading system, which made him lose control over the scale of transmission of this virus. According to De Guzman, he never expected it to reach the U.S. or Europe.

Was Onel De Guzman Punished?

Due to the crime occurring in the year 2000, the Philippine government did not have any written laws against cybercrime. Hence, although it caused great damage in an international scale, the creation of this virus was not bound by any criminal law.

De Guzman was not convicted for any crime, but he was expelled from his school. He is currently working as a cell phone technician and has settled down in his hometown.

Although this virus is more than two decades old, it is still considered a major stepping stone for many of the common viruses that can be seen today.