Once the mails are sent the worm then overwrites all Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files on a PC and reduces their size to 0KB. This makes recovery of the information without back-ups very difficult, more so than if the files were simply deleted.

Microsoft has agreed to pay up to $1.1bn (£684m) to settle lawsuits alleging the Redmond giant violated California's antitrust laws. Analysts said the move shows the software giant, which settled its long-running federal antitrust case in November, was moving to clear up antitrust battles with US states, customers, competitors and the European Union.

Sage has launched the latest version of its P11D range - Sage P11D and Sage P11D professional. Both products are aimed at managing the administration of taxable benefits companies offer their employees. It integrates with the Sage Payroll range and Sage Personnel.