Plain English: Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)

Candice is pretty lucky. Her type of job means she can work from home, and doesn't need to be close to her company's headquarters. Most of the time, she just needs her laptop and a normal Internet connection to be productive.

Unfortunately, in her last job, she had to constantly visit headquarters to access the company's network directly. The issue was security - it was too risky to send sensitive information over the Internet. Travel was expensive but necessary.

Recently things changed when she started a new job. Her new company, like the old one, relies on a secure network at its headquarters.

But instead of paying for expensive travel or using an unsecured connection, this company uses a Virtual Private Network, or VPN to connect employees and regional offices to headquarters.

Here's why VPNs makes sense A normal Internet connection isn't secure enough for some business information. Criminals could intercept company communications, and use it to cause major problems. VPNs makes a normal Internet connection secure and reliable, so that organizations can work with talented people and teams almost anywhere in the world.

It starts with VPN software being installed on Candice's computer. When she connects to the company's network, this software asks her to login. When she makes the connection, a computer at her company receives the request, recognizes her and gives her access to the company network using special rules. This creates a secure connection between her computer and the company network.

But that's not all. The information needs to be secure in transit. As data leaves her computer, it's encrypted, which makes it completely unreadable when it's en route. The information can only be read by the company computer when it arrives at the other end. This way, even if criminals did intercept the data, they couldn't do anything with it.

You can think of it like an armored car traveling on a highway. It's using the network, but isn't accessible without a key at the destination.

For Candice, regional offices and company headquarters, VPNs makes life easier.

She still visits headquarters regularly, but thanks to VPNs, she can spend less time on the road and more time playing fetch.