Bermuda's homes and businesses have been hit hard by the biggest computer virus outbreak since last year's love letter virus, a local technology company has claimed.

CCS Group said that "thousands" of computers around the Island had been infected.

The latest string of fast-moving computer virus has been spreading across the globe, clogging e-mail servers, deleting anti-virus software and planting "security back-doors" in personal computers.

The 'Gone' or 'Goner' virus, which first hit the US in the first week of December, arrives as e-mail that appears to be from a friend and purports to carry a screen saver.

It includes a message that reads: "How are you? When I saw this screen saver, I immediately thought about you. I am in a harry, (sic) I promise you will love it! It also carries an attachment labelled 'GONE.SCR'.

CCS Group said that the worm spread "quickly through the Island's corporate and personal e-mail boxes last week, deleting system files, clogging and even crashing network servers in what was the biggest virus outbreak since last year's 'love letter' virus.

But the group said that its systems were protected because it had protection provided by Big Fish e-mail protection services, a system which it sells.

A CCS Group spokesman said: "Big Fish protects e-mail traffic from its position in the bandwidth 24/7/365 so CCS never had to worry about a malicious virus or worm getting in and hurting the productivity of the company and its clients."

In the first week of the virus, officials at McAfee, a virus-detection software maker, said at least 100,000 PCs and servers that it protects worldwide had been hit.

Symantec, another virus-detection company, said Goner was spreading steadily but had not turned into a torrent like the 'I Love You' and 'Melissa' viruses that stormed across the Internet last year.

Goner is similar to other e-mail viruses such as the 'Anna Kournikova' in that people who click on the attachment launch a program that mails itself to every e-mail address listed in the computer's Microsoft Outlook contact list.

Those who receive the e-mail often think it has come from a friend or acquaintance, click on the attachment and further the infestation.

This deluge of messages can overwhelm corporate e-mail servers, forcing them to be shut down while technicians clean out the virus.

Businesses ranging from AT&T to the state of California to The Sacramento Bee to Boeing saw their e-mail access grind to a halt.

In addition to shutting down e-mail servers, many companies also lost access to the Outlook address books that people count on to keep their daily calendars, important phone numbers and e-mail addresses.

Goner is no more sophisticated than other viruses such as 'Nimda', 'Badtrans' or 'Code Red' that have hit the Internet in recent months.

But it may have spread quickly because its attachment appeared to be a screen saver, carrying the file extension .SCR, said Kevin Haley, product manager for the security response division of Symantec, a virus-detection software company.

"The screen saver is a new twist," Mr. Haley said, and most people know to avoid attachments that carry the .vbs or .exe extension. Files with those extensions have traditionally been laden with viruses.

"Now you want to beware of anyone who sends you a screen saver," he said.

Mr. Haley said Goner was also similar to newer viruses because it was a "blended threat" capable of multiple disruptions. In addition to its mass-mailing capabilities, Goner also deletes Norton anti-virus software stored on personal computers, deletes other files and installs a back door on PCs that use a messaging software called IRC or Internet Relay Chat.

The back door could allow hackers to take over the PC via the Internet and launch "denial of service" attacks, where thousands of computers are programmed to bombard a website with requests for Web pages, eventually forcing the site to crash.

Nearly two years ago, denial of service attacks staggered such online giants as Yahoo!. Computer users who are infected by the virus should install new virus-checking software and download tools to help restore deleted files and get rid of the back door installed by Goner.

More information on the virus is available at such sites as www.mcafee.com and www.symantec.com.

Computer security experts say the best defence against such viruses is to never click on attachments unless you have confirmed with the sender that is it harmless.