In a message dated 05/04/2000 9:24:30 AM Central Daylight Time, 
[log in to unmask] writes:

<< A virus has shown up in posting on one of our forums.Its making its rounds 
as an e-mail with the subject line , "I love you, open now" or something 
similar. DO NOT OPEN the e-mail, just delete it. 
 
 The virus basically uses your address book and e-mail program to send out 
similar messages to everyone in your address book. It can potentially tie up 
the network. 
 
 Thanks
 
 Keach
 
 Keach Sasamori
 IS Administrator
 IPC 
 2215 Sanders Rd.
 Northbrook, IL 60062-6135
 Ph: (847) 790-5315 
 Fax: (847) 509-9798
 e-mail:  [log in to unmask]  >>

Yes Keach, this is one nasty virus! Not only does it replicate itself and 
send itself out, but deletes any *.JPG files and *.MP3 files you have on your 
computer!

Below is a paste from the news report about it...

-Steve Gregory-

 May 4 —  A new computer virus called “ILOVEYOU” went on a worldwide rampage 
Thursday, shutting down e-mail servers and deleting files. Researchers say 
the virus is spreading faster than the infamous Melissa virus, which brought 
companies to a standstill last year. 

BUT ‘LOVE’ already has had much more devastating ramifications.
For example, one European magazine has lost its entire photograph archive, 
and the U.K.’s House of Commons closed down temporarily over concerns about 
the virus.
“This is the worst I’ve ever seen in my nine years in the business,” said 
Mikko Hypponen, manager of anti-virus research at F-Secure Corp. “We actually 
don’t know why it’s so widespread, why it’s spreading so fast.”

First reports of the virus came late Thursday afternoon in Hong Kong time and 
early in the morning in Europe. In Asia, Dow Jones Newswires and the Asian 
Wall Street Journal were among the early victims. 

“It crashed all the computers,” said Daphne Ghesquiere, a Dow Jones 
spokeswoman in Hong Kong. “You get the message and the topic says ILOVEYOU, 
and I was among the stupid ones to open it. I got about five at one time and 
I was suspicious, but one was from Dow Jones Newswires, so I opened it.”

HOW IT WORKS
I LOVEYOU arrives as an e-mail attachment in a message automatically sent 
apparently by a colleague. A message sent to MSNBC.com by a venture 
capitalist included the text, “kindly check the attached love letter coming 
from me.”

If a victim is tricked into opening the attached program, which is written in 
Microsoft’s Visual Basic script, the virus deletes every jpg image file and 
mp3 music file it can find. 

After deleting image and music files, the virus e-mails itself to every 
person or destination in the victim’s various address books, including any 
corporate distribution lists. That’s why it spreads so fast.

Hypponen said a major European magazine lost its entire image database for 
the past two years to the virus. The magazine’s publishing date was supposed 
to be Friday. “Right now they are scrambling to figure out what to do,” said 
Hypponen.

WHO IS BEHIND THE VIRUS?
In the virus’ source code, an individual named “spyder” takes credit for 
authoring the program. Hypponen said the name is unknown on the virus scene. 
In a bit of programming understatement, the code contains a comment, likely 
by the author, suggesting the virus is “simple but i think this is good.” The 
code also references Manila, Philippines, but that doesn’t necessarily 
indicate the author lives there. There are no other hints as to who “spyder” 
might be other than this cryptic message within the code: “barok 
-loveletter(vbe) .”
       
OTHER VICTIMS   
Many European computer systems shut down e-mail servers Thursday. Britain’s 
House of Commons was the latest U.K. organization to succumb to the virus. 
The lower House of Commons shut down its e-mail system for about two hours to 
safeguard against the virus. 

Britain’s Consumers Association and a major anti-virus firm said they also 
had been bombarded by calls from businesses whose e-mail servers had been hit 
by a blizzard of messages. 

British Internet service provider Freeserve said it had set up a filter to 
screen out any amorous e-mails with the words “I love you.”  

 
 

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