"Kindly check the attached LOVELETTER coming from me." - The single sentence which last week brought email systems across the world crashing down and spread even faster than last year's Melissa virus. "I have to tell you that, sadly, this affectionate greeting contains a virus which has immobilized the House's internal communication system. This means that no member can receive emails from outside, nor indeed can we communicate with each other by email." - Margaret Beckett, leader of the British House of Commons, betrayed by the love bug.
"It crashed all the computers. I have no idea how it got through the firewall. It's supposed to be protected.["] - Daphne Ghesquiere, a Dow Jones spokeswoman in Hong Kong.
"We have no clue how it got in." - Mr Hugo Praestegaard of the Danish Environment and Energy Ministry.
"I stepped away from my desk for 30 minutes and when I came back, there were 177 people who were in love with me." - Ted Canova, news director at US television channel WCCO-TV.
"It blew through here like a tornado. There were no survivors." - Lou Fontana, a spokesman for the South Carolina Depart- ment of Parks, Recreation and Tourism.
"The way we look at the I Love You virus is it's almost like Melissa on steroids, It's the fastest propagating virus we've seen." - Srivats Sampath, president and chief executive of security firm McAfee.com, a division of Network Associates.
News monitor column compiled by Conor Pope.
The full text of Computimes reports is available on The Irish Times web site at www.ireland.com
Information and releases to computimes@irish-times.ie - e-mail preferred (rather than fax, post, phone). No attachments, please.