Never leave your own computer logged in when you are away

Always log off your own computer. Do not let anyone else offer to do it for you

One of our branch supervisors was offering to log her staff off for them, so they didn't have to wait, and could get on with their evenings away from work. She wouldn't really log them off, though, but would just turn off their computer monitors. Once the staff had left for the evening, she would go back to the computers to see who was still signed in to the banking software. If she found someone still signed in, the supervisor would then defraud the bank, using her staff's IDs to cover her tracks.

In practice, never leave your computer logged in when you walk away, not even for a minute. Make it a habit to log off your workstation whenever you get up. Remember to always leave your Windows computer by pressing the keyboard shortcut combination of the Windows logo key and the letter "L" on a Microsoft natural keyboard. Get it? Leave Windows by pressing the Windows logo + L keys together to lock it up (or pressing CTRL + ALT + DELETE and hitting "Enter").

Above tips are for the cases that you leave the computer for a short period. At the end of working day, log off the computer is not enough to protect your information yet. There are some software and USB thumb drive can bypass the Windows authentication to login into the system if the PC is on standby mode. Shutdown computer before leaving office at evening is the safest way to protect information.

[Reference: SANS Institute]