The “I Love You” virus has come and gone. One of the more interesting things about it from my perspective was that after it hit the news, someone modified it and sent it out pretending to be an anti-virus company, telling people to run the enclosed ‘software’ to rid your computer of the virus. Of course, anyone who did that ended up with a virus-infected computer. The subject? “Virus ALERT”. Pardon me while I take a few minutes to gloat.

There have even been “experts” testifying in front of congress that “something needs to be done”. Yes, something needs to be done: people need to stop running software that they didn’t ask for and don’t know what it does.

Here’s a clue: if a friend writes you an e-mail saying he or she “loves you”, don’t sit at your computer playing games. Pick up the telephone and give that person a call. For god’s sake, don’t waste time running software that you didn’t specifically solicit. If you don’t remember asking for it, you didn’t solicit it. Please don’t ask congress to step in when you do something stupid.