"I have no involvement or participation whatsoever in the design, development, creation or dissemination of the 'ILOVEYOU' virus or its introduction into the Internet, whether alone or acting in concert with other people," Michael Buen said in a statement read by his counsel, Patrick Orosa.
The love bug virus is believed to have attacked at least 45 million computer users worldwide, from Ford Motor Co to the British Parliament, with damage estimates ranging as high as US$10 billion. The attack, the biggest of its kind, triggered an international search for the culprits.
Buen, who was named on Wednesday as a possible suspect, is a friend of Onel de Guzman, the 23-year-old college student who on Thursday said he may have accidentally released the virus on the Internet, though he denied creating the program.
Orosa said that Buen decided to come out in the public with his statement to counter reports that he could be responsible for the virus and that he had been evading authorities. Buen has already been interrogated by the authorities, the lawyer said.
Buen is a graduate of AMA Computer College, a Philippine computer school, where de Guzman also studies. AMA said both students may have some knowledge about the virus because of the theses they wrote.
The school contends that if their theses are combined, it would produce a program that behaves similar to the love virus. De Guzman proposed a software that will steal passwords through electronic mail, while Buen's thesis was on a program that automatically replicates itself into multiple copies.
De Guzman failed to graduate from AMA Computer College after his thesis project was rejected as illegal. Buen, on the other hand, graduated after the school accepted his thesis.
De Guzman admitted being a member of GRAMMERSoft and denied Buen was ever part of the organization, an unofficial student group that writes software for small companies. The name GRAMMERSoft appeared in the code of the love virus and authorities are following a lead that its nine members are responsible for the bug.
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