In May this year the ILOVEYOU virus wrought havoc around the world by travelling this way.

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Appearing in Hong Kong Thursday afternoon local time, ILOVEYOU began spreading at the fastest rate of any virus to date.

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Philippine authorities turned their investigation on the computer school after receiving 10 coded names, embedded in the "ILOVEYOU" virus, from U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation agents.

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But here's the point: Linux users are likely to remain immune to such things as the ILOVEYOU virus, even when there are feature-rich clients such as Magellan.

CNN: Linux users unscathed by ILOVEYOU

But I'm betting that IT administrators will react the same way to the damage and costs caused by ILOVEYOU that they did to the havoc that followed Melissa.

CNN: Linux users unscathed by ILOVEYOU

Experts said the "ILOVEYOU" case most likely is a federal criminal case because single states do not have the power to make their laws applicable in an international arena.

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Interestingly, many of the cyberattack problems we have today can be traced back to an early email-based virus that first appeared in May 2000 with ILOVEYOU in the subject line.

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Computer security experts believe the virus will be under control by Monday, but ILOVEYOU has already caused more damage than last year's Melissa virus, which spurred many companies to invest in costly and complex computer security measures.

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The fact that ILOVEYOU was seemingly unaffected by most companies' front-line defenses should serve as a wake-up call to businesses that in the ever-mutating world of computer viruses, security software must constantly be updated with the latest technology.

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With regard to industry, companies must do whatever they can to smooth security, in the view of GIP members, and some pointed comments were made regarding what members believe Microsoft should be doing to make its software less prone to attack by viruses and worms such as the recent "ILOVEYOU" threat.

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