Love may have seduced the world's computer users last week but it was the potent forces of vanity and fame which seem to have led the "Love Bug's" creator and others astray.

Mr Robert Schifreen, once Britain's best-known hacker, says there are virus writers around who will be very proud of themselves for beating the security of so many systems and firms around the world.

He says virus creators develop viruses to see how far they can get, for fame or to boast to their friends. It is this boasting that often leads to them being caught.

Whether they are misunderstood geniuses, malicious vandals, anarchists, pranksters or criminals, one thing is for sure, the outlaws of the Internet world are growing by the day.

The number of viruses has increased from around 25,000 this time last year to nearly 51,000 today, according to Dublin-based anti-virus software company, Priority Data systems. The phenomenon is growing with every PC sold.

While the apprehension of suspects for the I Love You virus may have led the world to breath a sigh of relief, the fact remains that only about 1 per cent of the virus creators or hackers are ever caught.

In 1984, Mr Schifreen hacked into British Telecom's dial-up service, Prestel, where he found the password of the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Phillip and viewed his personal files, including e-mail.

Mr Schifreen reported it to the media and was arrested and charged. He was acquitted after an appeal to the House of Lords because he had not broken the law. This led to the introduction of the Computer Misuse Act, in 1990 in Britain.

He says there is a big distinction between hackers and virus creators in that hackers break into systems to access specific information, mostly without doing any damage, while viruses are created specifically to do damage.

The blame for the rapid spread of the Love Bug, according to Mr Schifreen, should lie squarely with Microsoft for the ease with which the virus spread throughout the world's computer systems.

He says it would take very little to make Microsoft's e-mail and other programmes much more secure but he believes the company seems to think the responsibility for such security lies elsewhere.

Even default settings within Microsoft's programmes, which automatically open text or data files sent to a user that may contain viruses, are a liability.

While you can change these settings to protect yourself, the opening of other Windows programmes will turn the settings back on automatically and without any notification to the user, says Mr Schifreen.

Microsoft denies any culpability and says it uses security systems of the highest standard in its applications.

Potential hackers or virus creators do not have to look further than the Internet to get a helping hand.

Apart from the numerous virus sites, one of whose claim to fame is that it offers 15,000 different downloadable viruses free, the hackers' underground on the Net also offers ready-made tools to hack or create your own viruses.

Mr Sean Reynolds, managing director of Dublin-based Internet security consultancy RITS, says one US company produces software, which is available on the Internet, offering a point and click interface to create customised viruses. The most dangerous thing about this software, which allows a user to chose the form, trigger, and payload (action that virus takes when it is activated) of their virus, is that it allows the user to produce the source code of the virus.

The executable programme of the virus the interface produces would be picked up easily by security firms, but the production of source code, that can be tinkered with, can produce damaging viruses which will not be picked up easily.

However, there could be more sinister forces behind the spate of anti-social computer vandals appearing on the Internet. The murky world of industrial espionage seems to be rearing its ugly head.

Mr Reynolds says one particular site offers a download of a free piece of software, which allows a hacker to flood a computer server to shut it down. However, most desktop users will not have a large enough connection to have any real effect, so it also offers the option of running the software co-operatively with those behind the site.

This means that any data obtained will be shared with them with the trade-off that the hacker has a high capacity connection which makes it more likely that the desired effect will be achieved.

Mr Reynolds says that, if traced back, the origin of many of these connections can be found in the former Soviet Bloc. He believes national intelligence or industrial espionage services are involved in hacking.

Commercial espionage using the Internet is known to be quite widespread, with all of the major world powers having an "information warfare division".

Stolen data, which could contain sensitive high-tech or industrial information, could give a particular country a distinct advantage.

Mr Schifreen agrees that the phenomenon of industrial espionage is widespread in an increasingly wired world. He said companies use hackers to break into a competitor's systems to see what technology or strategy they are developing.

It is also not unknown for a company in the process of taking over another to employ someone to hack into their target's computer system.

He says there is a lot of money to be made out of commercially sensitive information stolen through hacking.

As with most crimes, it is often simple mistakes - some would say even stupid mistakes - that leads to virus creators and hackers being caught.

Some have used software licensed to them to write the viruses, leaving a signature which leads investigators back to the creator.

However, according to Mr Kevin Hanley, business development director with Priority Data Systems, if virus creators are clever enough they can never be tracked.

He says the anti-virus industry can only react to and develop a fix for viruses once they appear. The industry is constantly playing catch-up.

Mr Hanley says the profile of the average virus creator or hacker used to be a 16 to 20-year-old introverted male, with few friends. Now it could be anybody.

Although hackers are rarely computer geniuses, most are capable of covering their tracks properly and will never be caught.