Counterattack With viruses like Melissa ready to strike homebased computer systems at any given time, finding your best defense mechanism could mean playing a little offense.

The "Melissa" virus put computer viruses on the frontpages of the world's newspapers, and although it was allegedlynamed after a Florida topless dancer, the speed at which Melissaspread means it's time to start taking viruses more seriously.For years, I laughed off viruses--didn't even use antivirussoftware--but nowadays that casualness works about as well withcomputers as it does with sex. Protection matters.

But, first off, know that the majority of "viruses"you hear about--in frantic e-mails forwarded from colleagues orpals--are rubbish. Such as? Literally millions of e-mails haveclogged the Net with warnings about "the AIDS virus,"which supposedly "eats away" your memory. "Whenit's finished with memory, it infects your mouse . . . then itgoes to your keyboard."

Nonsense. There is no such computer code.