Tom felt a thrill of excitement as he rang the bell and waited for the door to open. The quarantine time had been hard, but certain aspects of it had led to his current situation, so he couldn't complain. The door swung open, and the pretty middle aged redhead who has opened the door smiled at him as she invited him in.
"Come on in, the computer is right upstairs. I've been vaccinated, so if you'd like to remove your mask, you are welcome to."
As Tom removed his face mask, he paused and replied, "Actually, Andrea, there's something we need to discuss. We might be more comfortable here in the living room."
Andrea's face briefly showed concern, but she quickly recovered, and said, "Sure, why don't you have a seat here on the couch," as she sat in an easy chair facing Tom. "So what's going on? I thought you needed to make some more changes on my computer for the office."
"Well, Andrea," Tom said, "As you know, back when the company first started to allow working from home, I went around to everyone's house to install software to make it work better. One thing that involved was something called VPN software - do you know what that is?"
Andrea said, "Not exactly, but kinda. It's what lets me get on the server at the office, right?"
"Basically, although it's a little more complicated than that," Tom explained. "VPN stands for 'Virtual Private Network', and it uses the Internet to connect your computer to the system at the office. Essentially, when the VPN is active, it's like your computer is actually at the office, just like the one on your desk at work."
Tom could see she was a bit confused, and she said, "Okay, I guess I see that. So is there a problem with my computer and the VPN? Is that why you are here?"
"Oh, no, it's working fine, perfectly in fact," Tom said. "Actually, the thing is, like I said when it is active, it is just like you are at the office, and everything you do on the system goes through the company network. EVERYTHING."
Tom suppressed a smile as he saw the recognition of what he was saying showed on her face. We are getting to the good part, he thought.
"In my job of computer security, I am responsible for the monitoring system that logs all the activity going in and out from the network. For the most part, it is to make sure no proprietary information is accessed by unauthorized parties, but the company also wants to make sure their system isn't used for anything inappropriate."
"Wait a minute," she said, "are you saying the company can read the files on my computer? I didn't agree to that!"
"No, not at all - well, at least not without cause if something improper is detected. No, I'm saying that traffic from our network to the outside world is monitored," Tom replied. "And when your computer is running the VPN, all access to the Internet goes through the company system, including emails. Including photos send to outside persons."
At this, Andrea stiffened, and her face began to turn red as she realized what he was saying. "Oh, god, are you saying that the company has copies of things I've sent to my friends?"
Tom said, "Yes, if you were still running the VPN when you sent them. Well, I should say the company COULD have copies, if the person who is in charge happened to notice, and brought it to their attention. That person would be me."
"Oh, god, this is horrible, those pictures can't get out!"
"Yeah," Tom agreed, "it would be pretty bad - besides the embarrassment, there's a good chance you'd be fired. They're pretty explicit."
"Oh, no, are you saying you've seen them? Who else?" She wrapped her arms around herself, almost like she was covering her body from his sight.
"Yes, I've seen them, but I thought I would discuss this with you before I passed them along to the company," Tom said with a smile.