With malicious viruses a fact of life on the Internet, the Lab uses a "virus wall" to monitor email attachments for viral signatures. Although the wall provides a good defense, employees can help keep their desktop computers healthy by installing anti-virus software (available from the Lab's software download page) and updating it regularly with current patches designed to stop new viruses as they make the rounds.

The Lab's virus wall examines both incoming and outgoing messages passing through the "lbl.gov" electronic post office and blocks those containing "infected" files. Viruses in outgoing messages are typically the result of someone inside the Lab network reading email on a private account, as those messages are not screened by the Lab for viruses. Therefore, it's important for employees to also keep current anti-virus software on their home and laptop computers.

With the proliferation of email and viruses, the time it takes for a virus to spread is now measured in minutes, as opposed to days or weeks as in the past. For example, when the "home page" virus was discovered on May 9, the Lab's virus wall detected 85 incidents within several hours. Here's a look at how the virus wall detected various viruses last year:

For more information about viruses, see the Computer Protection Program's Web page.