Japanese companies catching up and passing American companies should scare those Congressional critters into action: Ern -------- 06/27/96 VIRTUAL PRIVATE NETWORKING ADVANCES PAGE: 1C NEC Technologies' Internet Business Unit has successfully demonstrated country-to-country virtual private networking during several tests performed in early June between the San Jose unit and its counterpart in Tokyo. Virtual private networking promises a secure and cost-effective alternative to privately leased lines. Most connections across the Internet are not encrypted and information exchanged is vulnerable to snoopers. In a virtual private network, encryption is used to scramble the data. (From SJ Mercury NewsLibrary)