De Guzman, who is in his early twenties, failed to graduate from the Philippines’ AMA Computer College earlier this year because his thesis proposal for stealing internet passwords was rejected. The thesis carried similar characteristics to those displayed by the Love Bug virus and will now be brought as evidence against him in his trial.
Shortly after the Love Bug was first unleashed on 4 May, the virus was traced by ISPs back to a telephone line in de Guzman’s apartment. However, the Philippine government had no specific legislation to deal with such a crime. They have since passed anti-hacking laws, but these are not retroactive and so cannot be used against de Guzman.
Instead, the NBI are relying on theft provisions and the Access Device Regulation Act which covers illegal use of passwords. Director of the NBI Federico Opinion commented, “in spite of the absence of laws that would squarely fall on the subject matter, we have existing traditional laws that we can fall back on”. If the case against de Guzman is successful, he is likely to face between six and twenty years imprisonment under the Act.