Industrial insiders estimated that a bug outbreak of a Chinese anti-virus software Ruixing, which supports Microsoft's Outlook Express (OE) mailboxes, might have caused widespread mail loss affecting millions of OE users.

The company made a public apology on Friday, admitting the bug in its anti-virus software brand Kaka caused the OE system's automatic elimination of users' mail list and Cookie files.

Ma Gang, a Ruixing spokesman, said the company made an emergency upgrading of Kaka on Friday. He called on users to download the upgraded version and restart computers to avoid the bug.

The company also opened a hotline number for clients to call for help to restore the lost mails.

Zhao Cheng, an employee of a trade company in this capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, said he lost all mails in his OE account.

"I had the clients' orders in the OE mail box. Now there is nothing," he said, adding the system seemed to automatically produce several dbx files, which can not be deleted.

Beijing-based Ruixing Computer is a leading anti-virus software company in China.

(Xinhua News Agency November 8, 2008)