[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6822]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                          NO MORE I LOVE YOU'S

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Washington (Mr. Inslee) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. INSLEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening to warn my colleagues 
and the Nation of a computer virus that as we speak is really sweeping 
the world. This is a computer virus that is going to be shortly called 
the ``I Love You'' virus, and believe me, there is nothing romantic 
about it, because this may be one of the most insidiously destructive 
viruses we have seen in several years. It has already destroyed 600 
files in my office, and I am afraid that in many, many other of my 
colleagues' offices this afternoon we will have incurred substantial 
damage. I wanted to alert anyone who may be listening to this of a 
couple of things about this virus.
  First, anyone who receives an e-mail where the subject is ``I Love 
You'' should immediately delete the e-mail. That is the modus operandi 
of this e-mail, and no one should open up an e-mail with that subject 
matter now or perhaps forever, considering this virus. The reason is, 
there is a second aspect of this virus that is very damaging, and that 
is we have learned this afternoon that this particular virus will also 
damage common files that are on a shared server of anyone who opens up 
that e-mail. What has already happened this afternoon in my office is 
that we had someone open up that e-mail and it then destroyed other 
common files on our shared server system. In our system, it happened to 
destroy our graphic files under the JPEG type files and there may be 
others that are subject to damage. So I hope that everyone can spread 
the gospel with their friends not to open up any ``I Love You'' e-mail 
messages.
  I have another message that is important for those who are 
responsible for this destructive act. That is, you will be hunted down; 
you will not be able to hide. There will be nowhere you can hide to 
escape the impact of your actions. You will be hunted down like dogs, 
and you will be prosecuted. The reason is, that these juvenile vandal 
efforts are enormously destructive, and I can assure the perpetrators 
of this: that the U.S. Congress, beginning next Tuesday, is going to do 
what we can to make sure that the investigatory authorities have the 
technological tools at their disposal to find those who are responsible 
for this and make sure that they are prosecuted.
  Mr. Speaker, I think this points up an important point that we in 
Congress have to understand. In the West, when the technology of the 
stagecoach was invented, Congress responded by creating, if you will, a 
Marshals Service to respond to the stage coast heists. We now have to 
be additionally attentive to give our law enforcement officials the 
statutory authority and the resources and the technological resources 
that are necessary to track these folks down and make sure that they 
are prosecuted.
  Mr. Speaker, we are going to suffer significant damage nationally as 
a result of this. The person power hours that are going to be required 
to respond to this is going to be a major national problem. I think 
that we should commit ourselves when we return to our offices next 
Tuesday or Monday to be very diligent in making sure that we adopt the 
technology necessary to respond to this new threat.

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