I was on the train the other day when I saw the guy beside me get up and walk off to the toilet. He left his laptop unlocked. It would take, what, a second to hit Alt/Ctrl & Del to lock the screen but he didn’t bother.
With so many stories in the news about data breaches and device hacking, I can only assume that many people think it won’t happen to them, or that their data isn’t important enough to bother with. Or perhaps they picture these crimes being carried out over the internet by the stereotypical “movie hacker” locked away in their bedroom and not by the clean cut guy sitting beside them in the first class carriage on the train.
Fortunately for my fellow traveller, I’m a nice guy and I didn’t drop a remote access keylogger on his machine while he was away; instead, I just snapped this picture and kept an eye on his gear for him.
IT departments around the world work hard to implement intrusion detection and prevention systems; they develop, implement and communicate data asset protection policies and it can all be undone by one user who doesn’t take a second to lock his screen. Crazy.