Forwarded From: 7Pillars Partners <partnersat_private> 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 This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. -o- Subscribe: mail majordomoat_private with "subscribe isn". Today's ISN Sponsor: Hacker News Network [www.hackernews.com]
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