Like many of those who religiously update their anti-virus system regularly, I have a low tolerance level for those who don’t—after all, why can’t folks take 5-10 minutes out for this important task every two weeks or so?

But I know people who take such things far more seriously than I do—people who’d not only shower you with a few choice abuses, but also question your IQ level and so on. All because you’ve been had by a virus that’s now spreading further thanks to e-mail.

Over the past few weeks, such users have had a chance to experience the other side. The Klez.H virus, which is all over the place, uses random names from your Outlook Express address book. So, we’ve had writers getting e-mail from their seniors with the subject line: ‘Important story idea’. It doesn’t take too much to figure that some of those who didn’t update their anti-virus systems out here have had to waste a day getting the virus out of their systems.

Our Focus story this week is about the anti-virus industry. The anti-virus market in India is worth a tiny Rs 31 crore—that gives you an idea about just how few users spend a few bucks on these vital pieces of software, doesn’t it? Fact is, we’re sure virus attacks cost India Inc. far, far more than that. Akhtar Pasha and Pankaj Mishra analyse this sector and tell you about the main trends in this space. One main trend is that Indian vendors have all but disappeared from this market, but no one’s complaining, because what’s needed is global technology capabilities to check the virus onslaught through the Net, and only MNCs have the ability to do so.

In India Trends, Punita Jasrotia has a comprehensive story on the Knowledge Management space. KM is an intrinsic part of the lexicon of smart companies today, and Punita writes about the hottest trends in the KM industry. Besides that we have our other regular departments like E-Business, Technology, etc. Do write back and tell us what you think—just make sure you don’t send me a virus with the e-mail.

Ivor Soans
ivor@expresscomputeronline.com