'Love Bug' virus to cost businesses billions

The cost of the 'Love Bug' virus attack to organisations across the world could spiral into billions of dollars, according to anti-virus experts.

The VBS/Loveletter.worm virus appeared in inboxes around the globe on Thursday, causing email servers to grind to a halt, and some files - including JPEGs and MP3s to be affected.

Kevin Street, technical director at Symantec, told silicon.com: "The bill could go into billions." He predicted that the indirect costs include productivity losses, time taken to rectify systems and the potential damage caused by functions of the virus which have not yet been confirmed. The virus triggers the mass sending of emails, which could run-up a "whacking bill" for companies that pay per email sent on leased lines, he added.

Last year's major virus attacks, including those caused by Melissa and Explore.zip, caused an estimated $12.1bn worth of damage.

Alex Shipp, virus technologist at watchdog MessageLabs, claimed that this time it could be worse. He said: "It's likely it could be bigger than Melissa because we're getting so many more calls and so many networks are down."

Over the course of Thursday afternoon, dozens of silicon.com viewers called in to report their own experiences. One user said the costs could spiral into many thousands of pounds because of the time it will take to rectify the situation, rewrite lost files and apologise to clients.

Another victim said: "I got an email from a client this morning that said 'I love you', which I thought was a bit fresh, but I opened it anyway, crashed the network and sent it to all of our clients: very embarrassing."