An ultrasound imaging system is provided with virus protection. Each file that enters the system (via the hard disk or the networking port) is scanned to detect the presence of any virus in the file. Before each file is written to the hard disk of the scanner, the Checksum and Size of the file are verified, along with other virus-identifying attributes, to determine if the file is infected with a virus or if the file itself is a virus. If there is a discrepancy in either the Checksum or Size, then a dialogue box appears, warning the system operator that the file being installed may contain a virus. In order to provide additional protection for the ultrasound scanner, all processes starting to run on the scanner are monitored. Each time a new process is started on the scanner, virus protection monitoring software will suspend the process and search for encrypted data identifying the starting process in a Registry table. If the starting process is listed in the table, then the starting process is un-suspended without the user ever knowing what happened. If the virus protection monitor does not find a match in the table, then a dialogue box appears on the screen, warning the system operator that the application may be a virus.