Local businesses were prepared last weekend for the latest serious computer virus to wreak havoc in computer systems around the world.

Government and local businesses beat the bug, which came just three weeks on the heels of the Love Bug virus.

The new virus is not spreading as fast as the Love Bug but is expected to do far more damage, virus experts have reported.

It has been christened New Love or Spammer after being detected late on May 18.

At that time it had affected 5,000 computers at one company overseas but that count was likely to reach somewhere in the tens of thousands.

Clicking on an e-mail attachment will activate the virus.

Like the Love Bug, it will send itself to everybody in the user's address book and then overwrite most files on the computer's hard drive, rendering the computer useless until the operating system is reinstalled. As with the Love Bug, it will only spread from recipients running Microsoft's Outlook e-mail program.

Local computer officials said they were prepared for any trouble in case the virus reached the Island. Vicky Coelho, of North Rock Communications said it was relatively quiet in the wake of the new virus.

"Friday morning we got wind of it,'' she said. "We've had zero problems so far with it. We put the notice of the new virus on our opening web page, and people have learned from the last experience.'' Government computer manager Michael Oatley added: "We had plenty of time to react to put our protective measures in place,'' he said. "We had received a few viruses, but they were quarantined in a routine manner.'' The Love Bug virus spread like wild fire to millions of computer systems, including local ones. Estimates of the damage caused range up to $10 billion.

Local experts said they hoped that increased awareness among e-mail users would hold back the spread of the new virus.