A system that distributes alert notifications to multiple network users. McAfee Alert Manager is one example. Anti-virus software (such as McAfee VirusScan) generates alert messages that are saved to a shared folder on a server. Alert Manager sends notifications to users from that folder. When users update the contents of the shared folder, Alert Manager sends new alert notifications using such user-configurable alert methods as email messages to handheld devices. When users receive alerts from the network intrusion prevention system, they can analyse correlation through drill-downs and then generate reports.