“For those of you who live in a cave, a new strain of computer
virus is on the loose, happily worming its way through systems that
use Microsoft Outlook across the country. The happy companies that
remain unaffected include those running Linux or operating systems
other than Windows for their e-mail clients.”
“The TV, radio and Internet are saturated with reports of
businesses reeling from the effects of the Love Letter virus.
Several businesses were forced to shut their systems down to halt
the rampaging bug. Dubbed “I Love You,” the virus presents itself
as an e-mail love letter but behaves in a most unloving manner when
opened. The virus attacks script files in Visual Basic — one
Microsoft’s programming languages that is tightly integrated into
Windows and Microsoft Office….”
“Linux is unaffected by the virus because the operating
system (OS) has no VB code; therefore, the virus has nothing to
latch onto, says Canbox Technical Director Tom Harris. Canbox
is a unified messaging system service run from a Linux server. The
end clients using Windows to open their e-mail are the ones having
problems, Harris notes, “but this has no effect on our Linux
server.”