MANILA, Philippines -- Philippine investigators said Tuesday a diskette seized in a Manila flat from where the "Love Bug" is suspected to have spread has a program with characteristics of the destructive computer virus.
It also credits more than 40 people for creating the program, investigators said.The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said the diskette, one of 17 seized from the lower-middle-class flat in the Manila suburb of Pandacan, contained a virus program reported to be authored by computer school student Michael Buen.
"No incriminating data were found on diskettes other than diskette 17, which contained a strain of virus in the deleted document files," attorney Elfren Meneses, director of the NBI's anti-fraud and computer crimes division, told reporters.
"The virus found in the document files was supposedly authored by a certain Michael Buen, an AMA student, with acknowledgment to Onel de Guzman and a certain group called Grammersoft," he said.
The flat is home to both de Guzman, 22, and his sister Irene. Buen and de Guzman were students at the AMA Computer College (AMACC) in Manila.
Last week, Onel de Guzman's lawyer said it was possible he may have accidentally transmitted the virus, which affected millions of computers worldwide and caused at least $7 billion in damage.
Investigators have said earlier the virus could have been spread by a group of pranksters.
Buen came into the investigation because of a thesis he submitted to the AMACC dealing with multiple saving functions, a key component of the "Love Bug" virus. He has said he had no involvement in design, development or dissemination of the "Love Bug."
School officials said de Guzman and Buen were members of Grammersoft, an informal programmers group that formulated computer programs for small businesses and students.