A destructive, Melissa-like computer worm swept several continents today, affecting dozens of corporations and organizations, including the Central Intelligence Agency, Ford Motor Co. and the British Parliament.

The virus spreads via Microsoft Outlook with an e-mail message titled "ILOVEYOU". When a user click on an attachment, the virus sends a copy of itself to every person in that person's address book.

While the Melissa virus was limited to just 50 address, the current virus is not, allowing it to spread more quickly, a security expert said.

Reportedly, the virus may be corrupting MP3 and JPEG files on users' hard drives, and appears to reset the default start page for Internet Explorer.

More details are available at www.zdnn.com.