Members of the computing industry and law enforcement testified before the technology subcommittee of the House Committee on Government Reform Wednesday about how to protect the nation's computing systems from viruses and worms.

Their remarks came as computer security professionals were poised to tackle a new version of the Sobig worm that may attack computers soon and as Microsoft announced new vulnerabilities in the Windows operating system.

The Sobig.F virus disabled itself Wednesday, per instructions coded into it by its creator. But as each of the prior five versions of the worm have been followed by a new version after they disabled themselves, Sobig.H is expected to make its debut Thursday or later in the week.

Thus, with the goal of deterring future threats, the subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Adam Putnam (R-Florida), convened three panels of representatives from law enforcement, security firms and industry, including Microsoft, Cisco and Symantec.

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