The once-secret laboratory that created the atomic bomb is now helping fight off malicious software.
Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has announced the creation of commercial network automated response and quarantine software, which will help repel malicious attacks by worms and other self-replicating software, the lab announced on its website.
"Los Alamos developed NARQ as a response to this ongoing threat after an extensive and exhaustive search for a commercial product. The laboratory's TT Division is responsible for licensing select, mature technologies invented at the lab to assist U.S. companies in increasing their global competitive capabilities," the lab said. "Applications for NARQ include immediate response to detected invasive infections (worms), instant quarantine to remove infected computers and devices from the network at the port level and network planning and optimization."
John Deal, an entrepreneur working on the lab's commercial products, said "it's unbelievable the number of attacks we have to deal with."
"We had developed (NARQ) because we couldn't find something that would work between different platforms," he said, adding that the lab has produced commercial products for more than a decade.
Private businesses are a good fit for the lab's protection programs, Deal said.
"A big part of our job is the economic security of the country," he said. "Much of that is in small businesses."
