Welcome to Cybersecurity in 31 Days. I’m Malan Faya, your host. Today is Day 8. To view previous posts, click here.

Anytime your computer is logged in, it is vulnerable to physical intrusion. Anybody can get onto your computer and review confidential or sensitive or data while it is logged in. Simply stepping away for even a minute could be enough time for someone to copy a file or install software that can be used to monitor your system.

To protect data on your computer, you should always log off or lock your computer when you are away.

For additional protection, go into your computer’s settings and set your computer to lock automatically whenever idle.