Microsoft warning: Virus Alert!

The Americans have yet another reason to associate the number 11 with disaster. What Microsoft classifies as the ''deadliest virus ever'', was discovered on December 11. Brought to notice by McAfee - the leading company producing virtual anti-viral vaccines - the virus is reportedly playing havoc in cities like New York and New Jersey by invading the hard discs of computers through an email, with a seemingly harmless subject called A Virtual Card For You.
With no vaccine developed to counter the effect, netizens across the world have been put on high alert.
Yet unnamed, the virus works by duplicating itself on the contact list of the user, sending e-mails to all of them, therefore, making their systems vulnerable.
Till late afternoon on December 12, city computer experts had received no warning, leaving their systems quite vulnerable. "The need for finding a cure is all the more imperative, since the virus has broken out close to Christmas and New Year. The immediate action would be to raise an alarm and ensure that no one in our company opens any such mails," says Ravi Pundit, Chairman, KPIT Cummins.
Milind Kshirsagar, circle head of Reliance Infocom suggests constant vigilance and keeping in touch with the sites of anti-virus vaccine producers for the latest anti-virus patches. "We have already activated the on-line monitoring of the mails of all our 20,000 employees with the latest antivirus devices. Apart from that, we have asked the experts to alert us about the situation every hour."
Deepak Shikarpur, computer expert and chairperson of Computer Society of India, blames the anti-virus research companies for all the virus outbreaks.
"It''s a proven fact that 60 per cent of all these virus outbreaks are caused by someone in the anti-virus company, so that their latest vaccines can sell. That''s why I believe that there''s no reason to panic, since the companies will definitely come out with a counter-solution." Milind Purandare of Manas Systems, Germany warns, "All the e-mails without official purpose, from known or unknown sources, should not be opened without being properly scanned by a competent official anti-virus software." As all these systems can never be foolproof, the experts'' advice is to delete all suspicious e-mails without opening them.