Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol, thought to be the genesis of secure wireless data transfer, was released in 1996. Before PPTP, securely exchanging information between two computers required a hardwired connection, which was inefficient and impractical on a large scale because of the amount of physical infrastructure needed. Therefore, if the security offered by a wire was unavailable, any data being transferred was left vulnerable to attack or theft. With the development of encryption standards and the evolution of the bespoke hardware requirements to build out a secure wireless tunnel, PPTP eventually evolved into what it is today: the VPN server. Able to be applied wirelessly, it saved hassle and costs for businesses in need of secure wireless information transfer. From here, many companies went on to build their own physical and virtual VPN services, including Cisco, Intel, and Microsoft. Read more.