Hacker 'in Manila'

MANILA, MAY 6. The Philippine police said today they were awaiting a judge's warrant to arrest the hacker suspected of creating the `love bug' virus which has crippled computers worldwide.

``They informed me that there was no judge available, although we are trying our best to contact one,'' the National Bureau of Investigation Director, Mr. Federico Opinion, told Reuters by telephone.

``Nothing will happen until tomorrow (Sunday) morning,'' Mr. Nelson Bartoleme, head of the Bureau's anti-fraud and computer crimes division, told reporters.

But he indicated bureau agents had placed the suspect, believed to be a 23-year-old man living in a crowded Manila suburb, under watch. ``Our operatives are out in the field for surveillance,'' he said. Police and Internet Service Providers (ISPS) earlier confirmed the suspect lived in the Manila suburb of Pandacan, but Bureau officials said they had not yet confronted him and would not say why.

Some Bureau officials privately said the man had been identified, but would give no further details. Only one man is at the focus of their investigations, they said.

In Sweden, however, a computer expert said today he believed an 18-year-old German exchange student in Australia was responsible for the virus.

Takes new forms

Meanwhile, copycat variants of the virus burrowed their way into computers systems around the world yesterday, a day after the most widespread cyber-attack ever wreaked havoc on business and government operations.

The latest variants on the virus is possibly the most devious of all. One E-mail message has the words `virus alert'' in the subject line and the body of the message poses as letter that starts `dear Symantec customer.'

- Reuters

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