Chaos as computers get lovesick
THE ILOVEYOU COMPUTER virus seeped into Oxford this week as computers at the Geography Department became infected by the hoax e-mail that has cost the world more than £10 billion.
The virus, which destroys computer files, had spread rapidly around the world's computers through the Internet.
Informed of the nature of the virus early last Thursday morning, OUCS "took all steps to stop the spread of the virus." The subject of all incoming mail was checked by mailers and those with the "I Love You" subject were arrested. A total of more than 11,000 such messages were blocked during the day, and faxes were sent out to all IT support offices warning them of the virus.
Their efforts were not enough to stop the persistent bug from contaminating the computers in the Geography Department. Student witnesses say that it was dealt with rapidly and efficiently, with notices warning users of the problem. A representative from Oxford University Computing Services declared that the bug has had "no great impact" on university systems.
The virus - created by hackers - originates as an e-mail labelled "I love you" and carries an attachment named "loveletter." While many viruses rely on transfer through disc, this particular bug is able to spread widely and rapidly via e-mail, thus showing that love has no bounds. When the attached file is opened, the virus instantly destroys the user's computer system and automatically sends itself to everyone in the affected user's address book.
Oxford University is not the only institution to have been infected - the Houses of Parliament, the CIA and the Pentagon have been unable to avoid the lovebug's charm.
Authorities have been frantically hunting down the programmer responsible. A line in the program code reading "I hate go school" lead to suspicions that a school boy was involved. But on Tuesday, a man was arrested in the Philippines. Computer experts warn users to remain on guard as hackers continue to invent new variants of the virus in their continued attempts to cause international computer chaos.
4th May 2000