IS he or isn't he?

As of Sunday morning, this seemed to be the question--whether or not the 22-year-old man from Pandacan was indeed the one who spread the "ILOVEYOU" worm, also known as the "Love Bug." The virus, which antivirus experts say may be the fastest-propagating and most widely spread computer virus ever, has given the Philippines the dubious distinction of being its origin.

Antivirus firm Trend Micro Inc. said at least 28,000 e-mail messages have been infected by the virus. Some estimates have put the cost of damage at $10 billion. This once again places the Philippines in the global map of notoriety.

However, while the National Bureau of Investigation claims that they have identified the worm's creator, industry experts say the Romeo who created the Love Bug may not be Filipino at all.

Swedish Fredrik Bjorck, a Stockholm University researcher in data systems, believes an 18-year-old German exchange student in Australia was responsible for the virus. Bjorck, who helped the Federal Bureau of Investigation trace the Melissa computer virus last year, said the real creator of the Love Bug went under the name of "Michael" and had left traces on Internet user groups. Bjorck said he was not sure, however, whether Michael was in the Philippines when the virus was uploaded on May 4.

If so, the NBI may be after the wrong guy. Even Nelson Bartolome, deputy chief of the NBI Anti-Fraud and Computer Crimes Division, questioned the report of local ISPs which pointed the accusing finger at the man from Pandacan.

Using a Supernet prepaid Internet access card of Accessnet, the suspect hacked into ImpactNET and then to Skyinet to propagate the virus. But then again, since the originator of the worm used a hacked Internet account, that person could be anywhere in the world.

That person could have created a number of fictitious Web-based e-mail accounts and used those accounts to send the Love Bug. That person could then have used somebody else's hacked account.

The 22-year-old man from Pandacan can also claim that he merely received the Love Bug from somebody else via e-mail and say that he, too, was merely another victim and unwittingly passed the worm to others.

The NBI has also acknowledged that the FBI had been providing them leads, not being able to generate any of its own. Let us hope that the 22-year-old man from Pandacan will not become a mere "fall guy" in yet another celebrated NBI case.

This is not the first time the Philippines landed on the international virus map. More than a decade ago, the C-Brain virus from Cebu, which infected the now-extinct DOS platform from Microsoft, became one of the most common viruses in the PC world. In 1992, Jonathan Gumba became notorious for spreading the Possessed! virus.