Flowers are blooming, the sun is shining and love is in the air — or in your computer.

At least 150 Northwestern computer users were bitten by the “love bug” Thursday when their computers became infected by the e-mail virus, NU officials said.

Hardest hit were more than 50 graduate students in the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, said Weinberg junior Fera Gerstenberger, a student consultant for Kellogg Information Systems (KIS).

The virus spreads through e-mail, especially Microsoft Outlook, which is commonly used in Kellogg.

When the virus infects a user’s computer, it automatically spreads to everyone in the person’s address book. It then destroys image and movie files, as well as mp3s, and runs a program that steals the user’s passwords and sends them to an account in the Philippines.

KIS staff members said they do not know how the virus got into Kellogg’s system. By mid-afternoon KIS employees plastered Kellogg computers with signs warning, “Do not open the ‘I love you’ attachment,” but students continued to pour in with infected laptops.

“I got an attachment in my inbox from a friend, and I thought it was a joke, so I opened it,” said Kellogg graduate student Chris Graham. “We just did a trip to Europe and I lost all my digital photos.”

Graham’s computer, as well as millions of others around the world, was infected by a computer virus known as “Love Bug.” According to a cnn.com article, the virus, which has even spread to the U.S. Senate, is suspected to have originated in the Philippines Thursday morning. It spread throughout Asia, then through Europe and North America.

By late afternoon Thursday, major anti-virus companies such as McAffee.com made updates available to find and delete the virus. Damage worldwide is expected to total about $1 billion by the end of the weekend.

Although the virus looks like a normal e-mail, with an attachment titled, “LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.TXT.vbs,” or “Very Funny,” when it is opened, it infects the computer.

Roger Safian, Information Security Coordinator at NU, said the university immediately took action to block the virus.

“We blocked a Web site that (the virus) gets most of its payload from,” said Safian.

Blocking the site prevents the virus from running its full program. Although it still will infect the computer, it will not be able to steal the user’s passwords.

Safian said most NU students are somewhat protected from the virus because the university distributes Eudora Pro and not Microsoft Outlook for e-mail.

Technology Support Services had received numerous calls from concerned students and faculty across campus.

“I’ve done nothing all day but this,” said Safian.

The best prevention for users is to update their virus programs and to be aware of the different viruses that are being circulated, Safian said.

“I got this e-mail from Simon something-or-other with a file called ‘Very Funny,’ so I double-clicked on it,” said Kellogg graduate student Keith Bernhardt. “Then I went, ‘I’m screwed.'”