Veritas in Love Bug CDRom blunder

Data storage software vendor Veritas almost infected thousands of its customers' notebook PCs with a virus this week when it unwittingly distributed an infected CDRom to every delegate at its annual user conference.

Red-faced officials alerted delegates at Veritas Vision 2000 in Las Vegas to the problem after it was discovered that the CD, entitled Radio Free Veritas, carried the notorious Love Bug virus, which wreaked havoc on IT systems earlier this year.

John Maxwell, senior director of Veritas's data protection group, told a packed auditorium with more than 2000 users: "I've got some bad news for you - the CD which you received when you collected your conference materials has a virus on it."

"Please do not install this on your notebook PCs or you will get free Love," warned Maxwell, who was, ironically, about to deliver a presentation on the future of data protection.

An embarrassed press spokesman said: "He [Maxwell] probably had to make the announcement as it could have been a lot worse if we accidentally infected our most important customers' notebooks, and that really would have been headline news."

Maxwell quipped after the presentation: "In years to come this is bound to become a collector's item, so I recommend that you treasure this."