The ALG providing content filtering must send an immediate (within seconds) alert to the system administrator, at a minimum, in response to malicious code detection.

Without an alert, security personnel may be unaware of an impending failure of the audit capability; then the ability to perform forensic analysis and detect rate-based and other anomalies will be impeded. The ALG generates an immediate (within seconds) alert which notifies designated personnel of the incident. Sending a message to an unattended log or console does not meet this requirement since that will not be seen immediately. These messages should include a severity level indicator or code as an indicator of the criticality of the incident.