What seemed to be a harmless email sent in May 2000 to some people, the infamous ILoveYou virus wrecked the cyber world and brought major destruction in just a matter of days. Now, after 25 years when it posed as major cyber crisis, we wonder just how safe is the Internet in this time and age?
The ILoveYou virus, also known as the “Love Letter” and “Love Bug”, was a computer worm which spread as an email sent with a message “kindly check the attached LoveLetter coming from me!”
It spread quickly and destroyed over 10 million Windows personal computers in 2000, including that of the Pentagon and the UK Parliament. It brought billions of dollars-worth of damage. With its impact in the Internet security then, the Smithsonian magazine even named it as the 10th most destructive computer virus ever.
Beginnings of the ‘Love Bug’ Affair
The Love Bug started in Manila, created by Onel de Guzman, who was then a struggling computer science student at AMA Computer College. He believed that Internet access should be a human right. And so, he just wanted to steal Internet access passwords.
Prior to spreading the virus, he submitted an undergraduate thesis proposing the creation of a trojan to steal Internet logins. This was rejected by his college. Ultimately, he dropped out of school, developed the worm, and brought forth an unprecedented malware crisis around the world.
The people who received the email got attracted to it as it was disguised like a love letter. The ILoveYou virus tapped the human emotions and exploited the curiosity and trust of those who became victims of the malware. When the recipients finally opened it, it eventually wrecked their computers.
De Guzman was never prosecuted for the crisis he created because at that time there was no existing law that penalized cyberattacks. However, the catastrophe paved the way for the E-Commerce Law or Republic Act No. 8792.
25 Years After: How safe is the Internet?
ILoveYou marked a turning point in cybersecurity. It definitely changed how the world viewed email security. But we wonder after 25 years, just how safe is the Internet for us?
While the ILoveYou virus became a foundation for the creation of sophisticated and stronger cyber security in the years since, challenges still lurk in terms of cyber security.
In his recent LinkedIn blog post, Chester Wisniewski, director for Global Field CISO at Sophos, reflects that a quarter-century after the ILoveYou virus crisis, our inboxes remain alarmingly vulnerable. He said that email is still a top entry point for cyber attackers — despite decades of technological progress.
“The world certainly started paying attention to computer malware in the wake of ILoveYou, as well as a few other headlines making malware strains like Melissa, Michelangelo, Code Red, and SQL Slammer. It was the beginning of a new era of exploiting others’ openness for personal gain that has only continued to gain momentum over time,” he said.
He also said that email is still a primary distribution vector for spam, malware, and scams even if VBScript doesn’t present the same risk factors it once did. The amount of online crime has skyrocketed since ILoveYou and social engineering has been turbocharged by generative AI.
“Vigilance remains the order of the day,” Wisniewski emphasized.
