Barely a day goes by without some virus warning popping into our mailboxes. But how many should be given credence. Many are simply hoaxes. Before emailing everyone you know with urgent warnings about how their hard drives are about to be destroyed by the latest quaintly named killer - 'Bonsai kitten', 'Bloodhound', ‘Give your cat a colonic!’ and 'Elf Bowling' are amongst our favourites - check out the list below supplied by Sophos, the anti-virus experts - and bookmark this page for future reference. It’s a live feed that changes as new information comes to light.

Why are hoaxes important?
They may not damage your computer but they can play havoc with your company network. According to Sophos, the amount of email that a typical hoax can generate is a definite cost to organisations. Once a few people in your company have received a warning and mailed it to all their friends and colleagues, a mail overload can easily result. And although no official research has been done on the subject, it is estimated that hoaxes can cost you even more than a genuine virus incident. After all, no anti-virus will detect hoaxes because they aren't viruses. Some companies panic when they receive a hoax virus warning and assume the worst - making the situation much worse.

Circulate a ‘Virus Warning Policy’
Your company may like to consider circulating a policy on virus hoaxes to your staff, in an attempt to reduce the costs involved. Sophos offer the following as a suggestion:
"Do not forward any virus warnings of any kind to *anyone* other than <insert name of the department or staff member who looks after anti-virus issues>. It doesn't matter if the virus warnings have come from an anti-virus vendor or been confirmed by any large computer company or your best friend. *All* virus warnings should be sent to <insert name>, and <insert name> alone. It is <insert name>'s job to send round all virus warnings, and a virus warning which comes from any other source should be ignored."