appliance 116 may encrypt each packet before sending the packet over network 104 the sha 256 algorithm is one example of an encryption algorithm which may be used to encrypt such messages in step 360 appliance 116 may digitally sign the encrypted packet before sending the packet over network 104 the fips 186 2 digital signature algorithm is one example of a digital signature algorithm which may be used to digitally sign such messages those skilled in the art will appreciate that other compression encryption and signature algorithms may be used once constructed in step 370 packets that have been compressed encrypted and digitally signed may be transmitted to data centers via encrypted transport over a public network such as the internet and processed in some embodiments appliance 116 can communicate with data center 100 to send packets of log messages 119 from network 102 to data center 100 using network 104 communications between appliance 116 and data center 100 can be accomplished using electronic optical radio frequency or other signals for example when user 106 accesses appliance 116 appliance 116 may convert the signals to a human understandable form when sending a communication to the user and may convert input.