There's no doubt that Melissa is a clever little thing. But there is equally no doubt that a serious Black Hat hacker or subversive group could have made it much worse. It was its very success that gave it away. By mailing itself to the first 50 addresses in the Address Book it became a cyber chainletter spreading at cyber speeds. One cycle would produce 50 spawnings, two cycles would generate 2500 spawnings, three would lead to 125,000, while just five cycles could potentially infect 312,500,000 computers - and more wherever the Address Book contains lists rather than individual addresses. Think of the damage that could have been done with a malicious payload.