Virus Update: Experts warn of Love Bug virus mutants

The highly infectious 'I Love You' virus which wreaked havoc yesterday has evolved into variant forms entitled 'Joke', a 'Very Funny Joke', 'Susitikim' and 'I hate to go to School' according to security specialists.

Kevin Street, technical director of security software firm Symantec, said: "We are expecting further variants over the weekend. As the virus spreads via Visual Basic, it is very easy for crooks to change the subject line and therefore spread it further."

However, protection against the virus is now possible. Street said: "There are two ways to protect against the variants. Firstly, companies should set up firewalls and server protection to block Visual Basic attachments on email. And secondly, end users should configure Outlook themselves to stop executing Visual Basic attachments automatically."