InfoWorld: Massive e-mail virus outbreak spreads like wildfire

"A crippling and embarrassing virus has spent the day marauding countless e-mail inboxes around the world, replicating itself to end-user address books and sending an exhaustive list of pornographic Web sites to everyone therein."

"Dubbed the "Melissa" virus, the culprit has hampered -- and in some cases entirely shut down -- e-mail systems for companies the world over. For example, Microsoft has put a halt to all outgoing e-mails throughout the company."

"Some users at Microsoft received an e-mail that contained a Word document that has attached to it a macro virus," said Andrew Dixon, group product manager for Office at Microsoft. "If that document is opened and the macro virus is allowed to run, it is possible [for the virus] to send e-mail to a number of other users."

"Dixon said that Friday afternoon, Microsoft "temporarily turned off outgoing e-mail" company-wide to guard against spreading the virus."

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