Your public library system must protect the computer resources in its local area network (LAN) at each location from the rising number of malicious attacks that originate from the Internet, including Denial of Service (DoS) attacks. As the network administrator, you must protect the assets of the primary network, such as application servers at the main branch, without compromising service to the branch libraries that are connected to the network at the central library. You have also been instructed to keep your eye on the security budget as funding for the public library was recently cut back.

As the network security administrator, how would you approach this problem of securing a central computer network that is accessed by other branches and staff, sometimes in remote physical locations?