Leaving computers on after work?

AV scans, even defragmentation, backups, etc. also come to mind.

I don't think I've ever worked or consulted anywhere that had a request to turn workstations off overnight.

I've seen various policies, 1) lock or logout, 2) logout, 3) reboot (leaving the machine logged out), or 4) no policy at all.

Alas, he is. Chilly8's previous posting history is full of ignorant conjecture about information systems and data communication technology.

Yep, a good network security environment will set network access times for users and enforce it through network server policy.

I'm not sure I'd go that far, if I was working on something and my machine logged itself off, that work would be discarded and lost forever, until the customer called back.

The customer would then get forwarded to the VP to explain the situation, and that network policy would no longer exist the next night.

However, that depends on the type of network and type of user base.

There needs to be an understanding of what times are acceptable for users to be logged into a network. If you're dealing with say a remote sales force, that may need access to the network for 18 hours a day, then you set their access times appropriately. A worker that has no remote access and can only be on premisses between 8am and 5pm would have their network access privileges set accordingly. The real problem with setting such policies is sticking to them and not allowing users to gain more access than they need. Granted it is not necessarily needed in an organization that has few information systems assets that need protection, but if security is paramount then it's certainly a useful precaution.