The Poisoned Love Letter

Chronicle

On 4 May 2000 a VBScript worm set off from Manila, arriving as 'LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.TXT.vbs' under the subject ILOVEYOU. Whoever opened the declaration forwarded it to their whole Outlook address book, while the worm overwrote files and stole passwords. It circled the globe in about a day, forcing the Pentagon, the UK Parliament and countless companies to shut down email; damage estimates run from several to over ten billion dollars. Its author, Filipino student Onel de Guzman, was never prosecuted because the Philippines had no applicable cybercrime law at the time.

Lesson learned

A few weeks later the Philippines passed an electronic commerce law that also covered such crimes, and the world learned to distrust hidden file extensions.

Prayer of reparation

O false lover from Manila, who whispered sweet nothings with a .vbs extension, keep our file extensions visible and teach us that true love never asks to run a script. Amen.

How it is remembered

Remembered by turning on file-extension display and blocking scripts that arrive by email.

Technical record

A VBScript worm sent as 'LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.TXT.vbs' spread through Outlook address books, overwriting files and stealing passwords as it went. It went around the world in about a day, forcing the Pentagon, the UK Parliament and many companies to shut down email; damage estimates range from several to over ten billion dollars. The author, Filipino student Onel de Guzman, was never prosecuted because the Philippines then had no applicable cybercrime law.