A MELISSA virus variant, named Prilissa, was discovered in the wild recently. Melissa was the pesky virus which hit thousands of e-mail users a few months ago.

The virus infects Microsoft Word 97 documents and spreads itself by sending the infected document as an e-mail attachment using MS Outlook to the first 50 addresses in each address book.

The subject line reads "Message From (username)." The text in the body of the message reads "This document is very Important and you've GOT to read this!!!"

To avoid infection, do not open mail messages with such subjects lines. Delete them immediately.

When the infected document is opened, the virus disables virus protection security settings, conversion confirmation and recently opened file list.

In addition, the virus is programmed to trigger on Dec. 25, a Christian holiday. Once triggered, the virus writes a Moslem-related message on the screen, modifies the user's AUTOEXEC.BAT file, and upon reboot, displays a second Moslem-related message.