US Patent 7386888 Network isolation techniques suitable for virus protection

In a distributed network having a number of server computers and associated client devices, method of isolating infected client devices from uninfected client devices is described. The method is carried out by correlating network related virus infection information, determining if a virus outbreak has occurred based on the correlated information, isolating infected client devices from uninfected client devices when the virus outbreak is confirmed, monitoring all data packets in the network for the virus, identifying a packet type associated with the virus, and blocking only the identified packet type.