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Computerworld - The largest risk my company faces for downtime and lost revenue comes from virus infections. Viruses used to be a nagging little problem that affected only those who trafficked in copyright- infringing software on floppies. Then Microsoft decided that documents should also be virtual machines that run macros, and the virus world became a lot more exciting. Just when we got our heads around that, Microsoft decided that e-mail clients should also be able to run scripts and that our address books should be open to all software.

			This Week's Glossary Virus generation tool kit: Software available on the Internet that allows low-skilled wannabe virus writers to create viruses. One of these tool kits, called Visual Basic Script Worm Generator, was used to create the recent Anna Kournikova virus. Secure Sockets Layer: SSL consists of a set of cryptographic protocols that use public-key technology to authenticate the site you are visiting and encrypt the data stream to keep the data transmitted confidential and unmodified. Morris worm: A program written by Robert Morris Jr., a student at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., that spread across the Internet in November 1988 and crippled large parts of it. Melissa virus: This launches itself when a user opens an infected Microsoft Word 8 or Word 9 document. It prompts Microsoft Corp.'s Outlook e-mail program to send an infected document to the first 50 addresses in a victim's address book. Love Bug: A Visual Basic script worm sent as an e-mail attachment. The message's subject contains "I Love You." It propagates itself to all addresses in a victim's address book. LINKS: www.hushmail.com: Dublin-based Hush Communications is a Web-mail company that takes security seriously - perhaps even a little too seriously. It's for paranoid people like me. www.vmyths.com/index.cfm: Can't tell your AOL4Free.com from your Love Bug? VMyths.com, Rob Rosenberger's virus myths home page, will help you separate fact from fiction.

There are thousands of viruses, each of them trying to spread, and many of them leaving damaged data and public relations woes in their wake.
We run the best antivirus defenses money can buy. We update our software every time the vendors release new patches. We spend a great deal of effort on the problem, and yet we still suffer occasional virus infections. Why?
Chinks in the Armor
First of all, we must continue to do business. Our development teams need to share code. Our sales teams have to send documents and presentations, our finance teams have to share spreadsheets and databases. These days, all