No lock in the preference pane???

We have noticed that we don't have a lock in the lower left hand corner of the sharing preference pane anymore. I.e., when the authorized user would normally have to unlock it to make any changes we simply don't have a lock there anymore? I've read a bit about rootkits creating fake preference panes leaving the user with no idea what the real security settings are??
Thoughts anyone?

The behavior I found on 10.9.1 is if not checked in the security pane, every time you'd unlock a preference pane the lock would be gone next time you accessed the it, including the Time Machine and Sharing panes.  Happened earlier this week which sent me on a search for answer after first trying to find what had changed in my Preferences.
Found the answer by googling, here: The lock icon on the network preferences is missing.
If those lock icons are supposed to be retained and shown open, there appears to be a bug.

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