The Sober family may seem as hard to exterminate as a colony of cockroaches. [But] mocking the feds is a sure-fire way of goading the authorities, and you can't help but wonder whether the author is desperate to be caught.

If you don't have antivirus, get some. If you have some, ensure it's up to date and clean up your computer.

That may not surprise people who think it might contain genuine breaking news about Michael Jackson.

There's loads of it about at the moment. The volume of spam is ramping up as the day progresses.

It's important to remember that as older threats are vanquished, others will undoubtedly take their place. Mass-mailing worms may be in decline, but it's highly unlikely that they will disappear entirely - the introduction of a major new operating system may even spark a new wave of threats, as virus writers try to find holes in the product.

We advise all companies to consider circulating a policy on virus hoaxes to curb the spread of these annoying emails that can cause mail overload and results in down time and loss of profits. Although they do not cause serious network damage, certain hoaxes, such as the HIV Needle email, are cruel tricks that can be very upsetting for those users receiving them.