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Taiwan college identifies computer virus author
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) - A former computer engineering student was
identified by his college today as the author of the Chernobyl virus
- the menace that caused hundreds of thousands of computer meltdowns
around the world this week.
The Tatung Institute of Technology had punished Chen Ing-hau last
April when the virus he wrote as a student began to cause damage in
an inter-college data system, according to Lee Chee-chen, the
institute's dean of student affairs.
Chen, who was a senior at the time, was given a demerit but not
expelled.
The Chernobyl virus is known in Taiwan as the CIH, using Chen's
initials.
The college did not mete out a more severe punishment because Chen
had warned fellow students not to spread the virus, Lee said. Chen
did not come up with an anti-virus program, Lee said.
Lee said he was not sure how the virus ended up causing so much
destruction a year later.
Chen graduated from the college last summer and now is serving
Taiwan's two-year compulsory military service, Lee said.
Officials of the Bureau of Criminal Investigation said they would
seek permission to question Chen.
The unusually destructive virus - timed to strike on April 26, the
13th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster - tries to erase a
computer's hard drive and write gibberish into its system settings to
prevent the machine from being restarted.
Turkey and South Korea each reported 300,000 computers damaged
Monday, and there were more elsewhere in Asia and the Middle East.
Fewer than 10,000 of the 50 million computers in the United States
were affected.
Copyright 1999 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material
may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Received on Sat May 1 20:00:53 1999