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from Digital Chosun on Friday, February 14, 2003

Moon Jong-hyun is a computer virus "collector," one of about three to four virus collectors known in Korea. Moon, a senior studying Electricity Electronic Engineering at Kyungwon University, works for a small-sized electronics company. The computer viruses that Moon collected for seven years since 1996 number 90,000 and, by virtue of hunting down viruses for three to four hours on weekdays and 12 hours on weekends, Moon has gathered samples of viruses that amount to a number that does not fall short of that collected by domestic vaccine companies.

Moon started collecting viruses on his computer hard disk when he was a freshman in university. As he gained more experience as a collector, Moon became acquainted numerous foreign producers who sent him virus samples via the Internet messengers.

Moon boasted that samples of computer viruses are a national asset, adding that such viruses could prepare a nation for a possible cyber "biological" warfare and also produce effective vaccines. Moon also confessed having been offered about US$100,000 by an anonymous researcher at a "Mirim College" for his virus collection. But, Moon found out that "Mirim College" was a code name for a college in Pyongyang that was established in 1986 to train North Korean military officers for code breaking, and hacking skills used for information and electronic warfare.

There are about 30 to 40 top international virus producers that Moon knows of. The nationalities of these producers vary including people from Spain, Russia, and Rumania. These producers have formed a newsletter of their own that is released on the web. Moon has managed his own website since 2001 where he introduced news of latest viruses and preventative measures, playing the role of a local computer virus guard.

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