That connectivity cut both ways, however, as Gazeley was reminded of that afternoon.Īll the phones in his office started ringing at once. It was a sign of the new connectivity that the internet, still in its relative infancy, was fostering. They were avoided thanks to the diligent efforts of programmers around the world working together. Though largely remembered today, much to the chagrin of those involved, as an overreaction - or worse, a hoax - the Y2K bug was real, and the potential costs massive. Both men had decades of experience in the industry, and had just finished the grueling (though occasionally lucrative) work of preparing for the new millennium by staving off the Y2K bug that threatened to cause widespread damage to systems worldwide.
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On the afternoon of May 4, 2000, Michael Gazeley was in his office at Star Computer City, a warren of IT companies and shops selling electronics and gadgets overlooking Hong Kong's Victoria Harbor.Ī few months earlier, Gazeley and his longtime business partner, Mark Webb-Johnson, founded their own information security firm, Network Box, which specialized in protecting customers from online threats. De Guzman has not commented publicly on the case since 2000 and his current whereabouts are unknown. Multiple attempts to reach Onel de Guzman for this article, including through his family and former lawyer, were unsuccessful. This account of the virus is based on interviews with law enforcement and investigators involved in the original case, contemporaneous CNN reporting and reports by the FBI, Philippines police and the Pentagon. It also exposed vulnerabilities which we are still dealing with to this day, despite two decades of advances in computer security and technology. The fight to contain the malware and track down its author was front page news globally, waking up a largely complacent public to the dangers posed by malicious cyber actors. Tens of millions of computers around the world were affected.
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Twenty years on, the ILOVEYOU virus remains one of the farthest reaching ever. He was accused of authoring and releasing the first truly global computer virus that had disrupted the operations of businesses and government agencies the world over, from Ford and Merrill Lynch to the Pentagon and the British parliament, and was on track to cause a estimated $10 billion in damages - all in the name of love. It was May 11, 2000, and if de Guzman was feeling shell-shocked, he had good reason to be. "So if you ask me whether or not he was aware of the consequences I would say that he is not aware." "He is not really aware that the acts imputed to him were indeed done by him," the lawyer said.
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Seated to his right, de Guzman's lawyer Rolando Quimbo had to lean in close to hear the 23-year-old's mumbled response, which he then repeated in English for the waiting press. Skinny, with a mop of black hair falling to his eyebrows, he appeared to barely register the journalists' shouted questions, his only movement the occasional dabbing of sweat from his face with a white towel. (CNN) - Wearing a striped shirt and Matrix-style dark glasses, Onel de Guzman stared at the floor as he made his way through a crowd of photographers into a hastily arranged press conference in Quezon City, a suburb of the Philippines capital Manila.