Or connect them securely

No such thing. There are levels of security, where higher levels mean more cost. And even with the most secure facility, there are no guarantees. And certainly we don't have the funding to provide that level of security for every single facility.

	▲	lokar 28 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		A well designed and deployed VPN link from the satellite location back to HQ (to machines isolated for just this use) would be orders of magnitude safer then what they seem to have been doing, and a reasonable compromise between security and utility.