The present application provides a method and apparatus for suppressing the spread of viruses in a local area network. The method includes determining, in response to receiving a first service packet initiated by a target terminal, whether a destination port carried in the first service packet indicates one of the preset risky ports; determining, in response to that the destination port indicates one of the preset risky ports, whether a number of interacting terminals in the LAN that have performed ARP interaction with the target terminal reaches a first preset threshold; and in response to that the number of interacting terminals reaches the first preset threshold, providing protection to the target terminal so to suppress virus propagation in the LAN.