February 4, 2009:
The U.S. Department of Defense is now providing free anti-virus software, including regular updates, for the home computers of all its personnel (uniformed and civilian). That's over three million computers. The Department of Defense itself has over six million PCs already protected by anti-virus systems. The decision to protect members home computers came about because of the increasing number of viruses that can spread via CDs or memory sticks. Thus if someone takes some work home, to an infected computer, some of these worm type programs can slip into the memory stick, and then infect the work PC. From there the worm can spread its hacker payload throughout the military networks (the Department of Defense has over 12,000 networks.)