cover your tracks

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

conceal evidence of your actions or movements so that others cannot follow your trail or discover what you have done; take deliberate steps to erase the traces you leave behind; originally a literal expression from hunting and wilderness survival where covering one's footprints or tracks prevented pursuit; in security and forensics the phrase describes the post-exploitation phase in which attackers attempt to delete logs, clear artefacts, and remove evidence of their intrusion to prevent detection and attribution