Energy waste notwithstanding, sleeping computers are the equivalent to unmonitored assets begging to be attacked. Left a snoozing laptop in a hotel room? A savvy attacker equipped with nothing more than a container of canned air could grab the keys to any encryption you have in place. Systems with persistent Internet connections face the same risk of intrusion when sleeping than when awake. The difference is that when the computer is sleeping, so are you. This allows determined attackers to work without interruption. Sleeping computers defeat BIOS protection, making it even easier for on-site criminals to get in. The best defense against sleepwalking computers: turn them completely off when planning to leave them unattended for long periods of time. Those who want to squeeze a few seconds out of bootup time can select hibernate mode instead.

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