An Abingdon company has taken urgent action to protect computers from a new pornographic virus said to be spreading as quickly as the Love Bug which crippled thousands of businesses across the world last year.

Sophos Anti-Virus, of Abingdon Science Park, has issued a computer file which companies can use to shield themselves.

The virus, which originated in Australia, arrives in the form of an e-mail called Homepage. It has an attachment which takes the recipient to one of four pornographic sites.

The e-mail is sent to everyone in the recipients' address book, causing companies problems because of the large volume of messages their systems have to cope with at once.

Three major media organisations in Britain, as well as financial institutions, have been affected by the bug. One company estimated it had sent more than 100,000 e-mails triggered by Homepage.

The e-mail is tagged with the subject Homepage. In the message it says: "Hi! You've got to see this page! It's really cool."

The virus coincided almost exactly with the anniversary of the Love Bug which infected millions of computers on May 4 last year.

Natasha Staley, anti-virus consultant at Sophos, said: "It creates a tornado of e-mails. It is the sheer volume of e-mails that really causes the problems."