Computer hackers in the Philippines, noted for the dreaded ``ILOVEYOU'' bug, have unleashed on the Internet a virus masquerading under the nickname of President Joseph Estrada to steal user names and passwords, a local Internet service provider said on Friday. Officials said it was too early to judge whether the virus, which reportedly began infecting computers worldwide in the middle of this week, would be as serious as the ``ILOVEYOU'' virus, which wreaked havoc on computers across the globe in May. ``It may not be serious if people are forwarned and are reminded of the necessary sanitary habits,'' Selwyn Alojipan, marketing communications coordinator of Mosaic Communications (MosCom), said.MosCom, the oldest Internet service provider in the Philippines, said the new virus spread as an attachment to an e-mail message that has the subject ``erap estrada''. Estrada is called Erap by most Filipinos who often send jokes about him on the Internet or through mobile phone text messages. The e-mail attachment used by the alleged author of the virus, said to be a variant of the DonaldD.Trojan virus which surfaced in September 1999, instructed Internet users to open the attachment to view a picture of President Estrada, some victims told MosCom
