user-initiated device locking
163683·updated Oct 5, 2026A security control mechanism by which a user, through deliberate physical action, places a system or endpoint into a locked state that blocks further logical access until re-authentication — as opposed to locks triggered automatically by elapsed inactivity timers or by proximity/environmental sensors. Device locks in general are temporary actions taken to prevent logical access to organizational systems when users stop work and move away from the immediate vicinity of those systems but do not want to log out because of the temporary nature of their absences. User-initiated device locking is behavior- or policy-based and requires users to take physical action to initiate the device lock. In access-control frameworks it is used to distinguish the voluntary, human-triggered pathway to a session lock from automatic, timer-driven or sensor-driven pathways, and it is enforced either as a behavioral expectation or as an explicit organizational policy requirement applied under controls such as NIST SP 800-53 AC-11.
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Device locks are temporary actions taken to prevent access to the system when users depart from the immediate vicinity of the system but do not want to log out due to the temporary nature of their absences. Device locks can be implemented at the operating system level or application level. User-initiated device locking is behavioror policy-based and requires users to take physical action to initiate the device lock. Device locks are not an acceptable substitute for logging out of the system (e.g., when organizations require users to log out at the end of workdays). Publicly viewable images can include static or dynamic images, such as patterns used with screen savers, solid colors, photographic images, a clock, a battery life indicator, or a blank screen with the caveat that controlled unclassified information is not displayed.the sentence this term was read in
generalized from a web lookup of the quoted expression, with 1 reviewed place(s) it is used as the term Verdict: term of art.
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A security control mechanism by which a user, through deliberate physical action, places a system or endpoint into a locked state that blocks further logical access until re-authentication — as opposed to locks triggered automatically by elapsed inactivity timers or by proximity/environmental sensors. Device locks in general are temporary actions taken to prevent logical access to organizational systems when users stop work and move away from the immediate vicinity of those systems but do not want to log out because of the temporary nature of their absences. User-initiated device locking is behavior- or policy-based and requires users to take physical action to initiate the device lock. In access-control frameworks it is used to distinguish the voluntary, human-triggered pathway to a session lock from automatic, timer-driven or sensor-driven pathways, and it is enforced either as a behavioral expectation or as an explicit organizational policy requirement applied under controls such as NIST SP 800-53 AC-11.
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Proposed during multiword review of this document in the CKI mapping queue.
Attested in
Classifications
Entity Type
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Information Class
Variants
- plural
- user-initiated device lockings
- possessive
- user-initiated device locking's
- pluralpossessive
- user-initiated device lockings'
Framework definitions
- §1 · attested_usage_reviewer_confirmed
- No definition is given in NIST SP 800-171r3. The term is attested in use at 1 citation in that document; a definition is pending curation.Increment 2: attested in NIST SP 800-171r3 without a glossary definition.
- §1 · web_lookup_draft
- A security control mechanism by which a user, through deliberate physical action, places a system or endpoint into a locked state that blocks further logical access until re-authentication — as opposed to locks triggered automatically by elapsed inactivity timers or by proximity/environmental sensors. Device locks in general are temporary actions taken to prevent logical access to organizational systems when users stop work and move away from the immediate vicinity of those systems but do not want to log out because of the temporary nature of their absences. User-initiated device locking is behavior- or policy-based and requires users to take physical action to initiate the device lock. In access-control frameworks it is used to distinguish the voluntary, human-triggered pathway to a session lock from automatic, timer-driven or sensor-driven pathways, and it is enforced either as a behavioral expectation or as an explicit organizational policy requirement applied under controls such as NIST SP 800-53 AC-11.Drafted by the propose-term web lookup (PD-018); a curator confirms or replaces it.