Computer laws, hackers squaring off

Computer viruses break files and paralyze systems, causing immense confusion and damage. Then just who is it that is imposing extra costs on society by making these destructive programs? Dr. Lee Hui-jo of Ahnlab Inc., an anti-virus company, said, “Young, so- called ‘computer geniuses’ often make and spread viral programs through networks out of curiosity and a sense of superiority.” The first computer virus, called Brain, which appeared in 1988, was a work of conceit on the part of its authors. The program had openly printed on the file the names Emjadeu and Baiseed Albi, the two Pakistani brothers that had written the virus. The troublemaking CIH virus of 1999 was programmed by a Taiwanese student. The author Chen Ing-hau named the virus using the initials of his name and spread the program all over the world. The name gave him away and he was detained but was given only a warning from his school. The infamous “Love Virus,” which infected 45 million computers worldwide through e-mail, had in its source code that it was “Made in the Philippines.” The clue fingered a Filipino university student Onel de Guzman, who was detained for the crime. There being no pertinent laws to punish him, de Guzman was released without charge. On top of that, a British computer security company scouted de Guzman for his knowledge and expertise in networks. The authors of the CIH virus and Love virus were lucky enough not to get punished, living in countries that did not yet have laws to punish such crimes. However, not all computer criminals were that fortunate. A Briton named Christopher Pile was sentenced to 18 months in prison for spreading the “Black Baron” program in 1993. In Korea, the Korean National Police Agency caught a group named “CVC,” comprised mostly of university students, in 1998. The group had disseminated information through Web magazines on “How to write computer virus programs.” Kim Kyeong-su of the police agency’s cyber terror response center said, “We had apprehended the group but could not punish anyone because laws did not exist at the time.” Recently there have been viruses written from reasons other than curiosity or superiority. Dr. Lee Hui-jo of Ahnlab said, “There have been more and more viruses stemming from the ‘copyleft’ attitude [ used to express hatred toward software copyrights] or other ideas like anti-Americanism or pro-Muslim.” by Kwon Hyuk-joo