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Computer virus downs MT's Web site Systems in Medford, Ashland unaffected by fast-spreading bug The Mail Tribune's Web page was down for several hours Monday morning due to the so-called "Melissa" virus. Computer systems at the cities of Medford and Ashland were unaffected, although Medford computers did receive the virus in an e-mail. The Melissa virus comes in the form of an e-mail, usually containing the subject line "Important Message." It appears to be from a friend or colleague. The body of the e-mail message says, "Here is that document you asked for ... don't show it to anyone else" with a winking smiley face formed by the punctuation marks ;-). Attached to the message is a document file. Once the user opens that file, the virus digs into the user's address book and sends infected documents to the first 50 addresses. Officials at Ottaway Newspapers -- the Tribune's parent company -- in Campbell Hall, N.Y., detected the e-mail virus on the company's server in the early morning hours and shut the server down until the virus could be eradicated. With the server down, users couldn't access the Web page, and Tribune staffers couldn't update the information posted there. The Web page and the Tribune's e-mail service were both restored by about 10:30 a.m. Jim Pulliam, Medford's information systems director, said the city received the virus in an e-mail, but it was sent to an information-systems worker who recognized it for what it was and deleted it. "We knew how to handle it," Pulliam said. "We were lucky." He said most of the city's 325 computers do not have the Microsoft Word and Outlook programs that are affected by the virus. Even so, he's putting out messages to warn city workers about the potential problem. In Ashland, Phil Lind, the city's computer-systems manager, said he believes the city's 130 computers will be spared problems because the city has up-to-date virus protectors. Information about the Melissa virus is available on the Web at: www.cert.org/advisories/CA-99-04-Melissa-Macro-Virus.html Microsoft has a patch available at: www.microsoft.com/security/bulletins/ms99-002.asp Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA