Short Take: Virus initiative announced

The National Computer Security Association and Microsoft announced the Macro Virus Prevention Initiative, an effort to help antivirus software makers build tools to thwart the growing number of macro viruses in productivity applications. The effort includes creation of a developer newsgroup to disseminate information from the company to third parties, a new Web site to inform users, and an early release of beta versions of Microsoft applications to antivirus companies to enable quick delivery of new detection tools.