Taiwan Expert Questioned on Chernobyl Virus
May 1, 1999 - 0:0
TAIPEI Taiwan police on Friday were questioning a computer expert who media reports said had boasted of creating the Chernobyl Virus that recently wrought global havoc. Police said 24-year-old Chen Ing-Hau had not been charged and their investigation had only begun. Chen was being questioned in Taipei on suspicion of intentionally spreading a computer virus, a crime that carries a possible three-year prison term.
Authorities said Chen graduated from Taipei's Tatung Institute of Technology in 1998 with an information engineering degree and has since been undergoing Taiwan's mandatory two-year military service. Reports said Chen's school had known about his alleged involvement with the virus for a year. Former classmates and instructors said he had boasted of creating the Chernobyl Virus and warned friends not to download it into their computers.
Though popularly dubbed Chernobyl because it strikes on the April 26 anniversary of the Soviet nuclear disaster in 1986, it is known to experts as CIH. Colleagues said Chen had acknowledged using his own initials in naming the virus, according to the media reports. Some reports said Chen had been reprimanded quietly by his institute a year ago but not further disciplined, prompting an Internet debate about Taiwan's vigilance against cybercrime.
Chernobyl/CIH is one of the most damaging viruses of recent years, having crippled thousands if not millions of computers worldwide starting on Monday -- particularly in developing countries where anti-virus defenses are weak. Estimates vary widely, but authorities have said Chernobyl hit hundreds of thousands of computers in South Korea, Turkey and China and tens of thousands in India and Bangladesh and the Mideast. Less widespread than the e-mail replicator virus called Melissa which swamped Internet servers around the world in April, Chernobyl and its variants are far more vicious.
Chernobyl/CIH employs a "spacefilling" technique that clogs up a computer's hard-disk storage system, effectively crashing most systems and in many cases making restart impossible. Western virus experts first traced Chernobyl/CIH to Taiwan in June 1998 and said it had spread worldwide via the Internet and other networks within a week. Chernobyl's virulence and Taiwan's seemingly lenient handling of its purported author have kindled a debate about how the world should combat viruses.
In the United States, where the Melissa virus's spewing of duplicate e-mail messages forced many firms to shut down their overtaxed computer networks, alleged author David Smith faces the possibility of 40 years in prison if convicted. Zdnet writer Robert Lemos, in an Internet dispatch, said Taiwan's Chen "was not prosecuted, but merely reprimanded and given a demerit" by his school.
"The immense differences in punishment illustrate a large rift in perceptions over the seriousness of computer viruses," Lemos wrote, adding that while "Melissa was essentially benign, CIH was deadly to some computers". (Reuter)
Authorities said Chen graduated from Taipei's Tatung Institute of Technology in 1998 with an information engineering degree and has since been undergoing Taiwan's mandatory two-year military service. Reports said Chen's school had known about his alleged involvement with the virus for a year. Former classmates and instructors said he had boasted of creating the Chernobyl Virus and warned friends not to download it into their computers.
Though popularly dubbed Chernobyl because it strikes on the April 26 anniversary of the Soviet nuclear disaster in 1986, it is known to experts as CIH. Colleagues said Chen had acknowledged using his own initials in naming the virus, according to the media reports. Some reports said Chen had been reprimanded quietly by his institute a year ago but not further disciplined, prompting an Internet debate about Taiwan's vigilance against cybercrime.
Chernobyl/CIH is one of the most damaging viruses of recent years, having crippled thousands if not millions of computers worldwide starting on Monday -- particularly in developing countries where anti-virus defenses are weak. Estimates vary widely, but authorities have said Chernobyl hit hundreds of thousands of computers in South Korea, Turkey and China and tens of thousands in India and Bangladesh and the Mideast. Less widespread than the e-mail replicator virus called Melissa which swamped Internet servers around the world in April, Chernobyl and its variants are far more vicious.
Chernobyl/CIH employs a "spacefilling" technique that clogs up a computer's hard-disk storage system, effectively crashing most systems and in many cases making restart impossible. Western virus experts first traced Chernobyl/CIH to Taiwan in June 1998 and said it had spread worldwide via the Internet and other networks within a week. Chernobyl's virulence and Taiwan's seemingly lenient handling of its purported author have kindled a debate about how the world should combat viruses.
In the United States, where the Melissa virus's spewing of duplicate e-mail messages forced many firms to shut down their overtaxed computer networks, alleged author David Smith faces the possibility of 40 years in prison if convicted. Zdnet writer Robert Lemos, in an Internet dispatch, said Taiwan's Chen "was not prosecuted, but merely reprimanded and given a demerit" by his school.
"The immense differences in punishment illustrate a large rift in perceptions over the seriousness of computer viruses," Lemos wrote, adding that while "Melissa was essentially benign, CIH was deadly to some computers". (Reuter)