Pwc Unit Posts Antidote To Iloveyou

Indiainitiative.com, the dotcom arm of PricewaterhouseCoopers has rummaged the Internet and posted an antidote against the ILOVEYOU email virus in the portal that has been slowing computers and shutting down email systems all around the world.

A PwC spokesperson said: "We have been scouring the Net to find an available antidote till this morning. We are on the alert and we are taking necessary precautions as our internal alert systems are working pretty well".

The portal Indiainitiative.com spreads awareness about the lethality of the virus and has given a list of answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) such as:

lWhat is ILOVEYOU

 

lWho is at risk?

lWhat can you do to protect your PC?

lHow to avoid infection?

lSigns of infection.

lPayload.

lRecovery and Disinfection.

The site also warns that the worst is still to come. Even as the world took stock of the damages on May 5, copycat viruses one of which was dubbed "very funny" began destroying files and jamming countless email systems. The new variants an elude anti-virus software designed to block the ILOVEYOU bug and could potentially cause damage.

The ILOVEYOU bug operates this way. Users get an email that reads ILOVEYOU on the subject line. The email instructs users to open an attachment called "LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.TXT.vbs" which contain the virus and send infected emails to everyone in the outlook express books.

Earlier, the president of the National Association of Software and Service Cos (Nasscom), Dewang Mehta, Friday confirmed to Bridge News that "many Indians" had received mail with the deadly "ILOVEYOU" virus but said that major crashes were yet to be reported.

"We have probably been saved by the skeptical nature of Indians. Here, people are more cautious about ILOVEYOU messages," he quipped.

Nasscom sent a warning signal to all mail server providers Thursday, he said, adding that awareness of the problem is half the solution. The global damage from the virus is estimated at $1-2.5 billion.

The impact on India would be minimal according to Ravi Sangal, the president of the Indian arm of the International Data Corp. (IDC) which tracks the information technology sector.