Chernobyl virus author lands at Taiwan tech firm
By Reuters
Special to CNET News.com
December 30, 1999, 2:55 p.m. PT

TAIPEI--A Taiwan technology firm keen to test its own hardware has hired the super-hacker who created the notorious Chernobyl virus--which laid waste to hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide in April.

Wahoo International Enterprise said it recently fought off a score of high-tech rivals competing to lure Chen Ing-hau after the 24-year-old completed Taiwan's mandatory military service.

A remorseful Chen admitted he wrote the stealthy computer program during his tour of military duty, and was arrested in April but soon released because no complaints were filed in Taiwan.

The virus, also known as CIH, wipes out an infected computer's hard drive data every April 26--the anniversary of the 1986 Soviet nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, Ukraine.

Chen's rogue program hit hardest in countries with weak antivirus defenses, gumming up hundreds of thousands of computers in South Korea, Turkey, China, India and elsewhere. "Our chairman felt he was a rare computer professional and we decided to accept him with an open heart,'' said Wahoo spokeswoman Vivi Wang.

Chen works in Wahoo's hardware testing department, she said.

Wahoo, which makes multilingual Linux operating systems, has said it plans to list its U.S. arm, XLinux.com, on the Nasdaq stock market by June 2000.