# Enabling secret scanning for your repository
You can configure how GitHub scans your repositories for leaked secrets and generates alerts.
## About enabling secret scanning alerts for users
Secret scanning alerts for users can be enabled on any free public repository that you own.
Secret scanning alerts for users can be enabled for any repository that is owned by an organization.
If you're an organization owner, you can enable secret scanning for multiple repositories at a time using security configurations. For more information, see [Enabling security features at scale](/en/code-security/securing-your-organization/introduction-to-securing-your-organization-at-scale/about-enabling-security-features-at-scale).
## Enabling secret scanning alerts for users
Secret scanning alerts for users are enabled when you enable Secret Protection for your repository.
1. On GitHub, navigate to the main page of the repository.
2. Under your repository name, click ** Settings**. If you cannot see the "Settings" tab, select the **** dropdown menu, then click **Settings**.
3. In the "Security" section of the sidebar, click ** Advanced Security**.
4. To the right of "Secret Protection", click **Enable**.
5. Review the impact of enabling Secret Protection, then click **Enable Secret Protection**.
A repository administrator can choose to disable secret scanning for a repository at any time. For more information, see [Managing security and analysis settings for your repository](/en/repositories/managing-your-repositorys-settings-and-features/enabling-features-for-your-repository/managing-security-and-analysis-settings-for-your-repository).
## Next steps
* [Viewing and filtering alerts from secret scanning](/en/code-security/secret-scanning/managing-alerts-from-secret-scanning/viewing-alerts)
* [About secret scanning alerts](/en/code-security/secret-scanning/managing-alerts-from-secret-scanning/about-alerts)