A system and method for generating a security indicator on a display of a computing device (e.g. a mobile device), to indicate when the computing device is in a secure state while locked. A determination is made (e.g. by a data protection system) as to whether at least some of the secure data stored on the computing device can be decrypted by any applications on the computing device, while the computing device is in the locked state. An icon or other identifier can be displayed to indicate that the secure state has been attained. In one embodiment, the secure state is considered to have been attained, if it is determined that all tickets that have been issued to applications on the computing device while the computing device was unlocked have been released, and any decrypted encryption keys that may be used to decrypt the secure data have been deleted.