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Publishers Beat 'Love Bug'
Calvin Reid -- 5/15/00

In the wake of the "love bug," publishing houses contacted by PW reported mostly initial anxiety and an overnight scramble to secure their systems, but no real damage caused by the international computer virus.

Most publishers contacted by PW were quick to praise their tech staffs for fast actions to contain and delete the virus from their computer networks.

S&S spokesperson Adam Rothberg said, "A few people here opened the love bug attachment." But, he said, "good work" by the S&S IT department limited the damage. "We were slowed but not stopped," Rothberg said.

Stuart Applebaum, Random House spokesperson, told PW that Random House's IT staff "pulled an all-nighter to clean out the bug." Like many other firms, RH temporarily shut down its e-mail servers to prevent the computer virus from entering the network. Applebaum noted that much of RH's editorial staff was out of the office on May 4 for the RH sales conference, which, he said, probably minimized the damage. Full e-mail service, said Applebaum, was restored by Monday, May 8.

"It could have been a lot worse," he said. "We rediscovered the joy of faxing."

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