The information management system such as might be used for a source code management system. The information management system is distributed throughout an enterprise and is operated to allow secure communications with remote sites connected to a central site over an unsecured network. A secure channel is created through the unsecured network to transmit encryption and identifier information for one or more artifacts. This information is used to access an artifact from a remote site and decrypt it. Because artifacts, though encrypted, retain an identifiable form, they may be cached throughout the information management system. The ability to cache artifacts significantly reduces the bandwidth required for operating the information management system from remote sites.