Anti-virus vendors are warning of a new worm in tribute to teen singer Avril Lavigne. Internet Week reports that the virus, known as Avril or Livra opens Microsoft Internet Explorer on the singer’s Web site on the 7th, 11th and 24th of the month, and allows it to forward itself to all email addresses in Outlook regardless of whether the email attachment is opened.

Dean Evans & Associates announced the release of EMS Enterprise 2.2, the latest in their EMS (Event Management System) product line. In Version 2.2, the optional Virtual EMS component of the program is integrated with Microsoft Exchange Server, allowing users to view the Microsoft Outlook calendars of people they intend to invite to a meeting and thereby simplifying the process of choosing the best day and time for all attendees.

Aladdin Knowledge Systems announced its Content Security Research Team (CSRT) has raised the threat level for the latest mass-spreading Trojan, Win32.Lirva.a, from low to medium. Lirva.a is a mass-mailing worm which, in addition to propagating via email, is also capable of spreading over shared folders, instant messages, KaaZa peer-to-peer networks, and IRC (Internet Relay Chat). Upon infection of unprotected systems it attempts to terminate security-related applications and attempts to send the dial-up password on Win 9x and Win ME machines to its creator.

Caelo Software announced that NEO has been included in the software category of CNET’s Top 100 Products of 2002 list. NEO has been named – Top Email Organizing Software. The list also appeared in Computer Shopper Magazine.

TechTV is reporting that two new viruses, and one familiar old bug, are ringing in the new year. Killboot is a macro virus that infects Microsoft Word documents. It spreads via shared documents and acts as a trojan once it infects a computer. W32.HLLW.Backzat.B is an email-based worm that uses Microsoft Outlook and the Outlook address book to send out infectious email. The third virus is called Yaha. Yaha is a mass mailer that sends itself to all email addresses in the computer’s Microsoft Windows address book, MSN Messenger list, Yahoo! Pager list, and ICQ list.

Information week has this story about one industry analyst who thinks that Oracle has go beyond cost saving comparisons to Microsoft Exchange in order to lure business customers.

PC World takes a look at Report Mailer, the first of a series of plug-ins for Alpha Software’s Alpha Five Version 5. Report Mailer is available now and helps streamline the process of sending PDF documents in bulk email.

IT World reports that with Microsoft’s forthcoming customer relationship management (CRM) software drawing attention to the CRM sector, several growing application service providers are using the opportunity to talk about the advantages of hosted CRM deployments.

Destination CRM says that Microsoft Business Solutions’ CRM product will be a must-have. One of the reasons why is because Microsoft’s CRM product will be fully integrated with Microsoft Exchange Server and will have a disconnected client that leverages the MSDE version of SQL Server 2000 and is fully integrated with Microsoft Outlook.

ServerWorld Magazine reports that AOL has announced they will release an email client (AOL Communicator) offering compatibility with point of presence as well as their own proprietary mail format, and Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) formats.