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It wasn't so long ago that to secure multiple sites only a few miles apart with a single system required expensive leased telephone lines. Aside from the cost, often in excess of $1,000 per month for relatively short distances, the service was subject to interruption at the hands of the telephone company, or errant backhoe operators. Of course now we don't think about those things; the Internet connects any place to any other place, regardless of distance, for about $50 per month.
There is a catch, though: using the Internet to carry data can leave systems vulnerable to malicious attacks by people the end user will also never see. Fortunately, by taking some simple precautions, systems can be protected from most attacks.
There are several possible cost-effective solutions to the problem of sending data securely over the Internet, each one's effectiveness beholden to the particulars of its application.
One common way to secure data over the Internet is to use a VPN, or virtual private network. The virtual part comes because data is made private, as is the case in a private network, while still using the Internet to transport the data from end to end. VPNs tunnel through the Internet by encrypting the data they transfer in such a way that only legitimate end points understand; if it falls into...