The ILOVEYOU virus, which spread rapidly throughout the world is aderivative of the Melissa virus and affects only Microsoft e-mail systems.Three years ago Gartner's chief technology officer and chief informationsecurity officer, Michael Zboray, advised clients: "Until Microsoftimplements containment areas with a restrictive default security policy,unrestricted use of the product should be prevented and it should befiltered out at the firewall." That advice holds true today, says Gartner.However, if the lovebug still catches you, here is a to-do-list. Zborayoutlines standard security measures for enterprises dealing with emergencysecurity situations:-

Have a security response team in place. Gartner's security team is organizedinto two main areas of expertise to facilitate immediate response, the virusteam and the firewall team. Block all Internet e-mail until the virus fix isapplied.

Have communications and security response team procedures in place. Eachhour counts in identifying and stopping viruses and hackers. Early detectionand communication are vital. Enterprise-wide e-mails and warnings about theevent rapidly restore an infrastructure to a secure state. Enterprises musthave specific responses mapped to either virus or hacker attacks.

Connect the security response team with the rest of the IT department. Whenthe security response team is in place and reports directly to the CIO orchief security officer, other IT teams that maintain the supply chain andcustomer relationship management systems can be updated immediately aboutany impact to vendors and customers. Finally, planning ahead would savetime, money, customers and headaches than any other virus fix.