Remote delete email/calendar upon employee departure?

Question

Level 2

265 points

Remote delete email/calendar upon employee departure?

Hello.

We are considering allowing employees to integrate their person iPhones within our system for mail and calendar (via Google Apps Premiere) and I'm wondering if anyone could provide some guidance. Our main concern is how to handle the company data on these personal phones once an employee, for whatever reason, leaves the company. Are there any options for removing the data (email and calendar) from the phone aside from physically deleting the accounts from the user's phone? Obviously a "remote wipe" via Google Apps or MobileMe won't work as we don't wipe to wipe the entire phone, we just want to make sure company-based data is removed (again, email and calendar).

Email accounts are IMAP-based, so while I can change the account password, this only stops them from getting new mail/calendar info — it does nothing to remove old emails, etc.

Any advice would be much appreciated!

Thanks,
Kristin.

20" Intel iMac 2.16 Ghz, Macintosh SE/30, Mac OS X (10.6.2), Xserves (Early 2009, Early 2008, G5), Mac Pro

Posted on Oct 19, 2010 8:12 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Oct 19, 2010 8:16 AM in response to kristin.

We are considering allowing employees to integrate their person iPhones within our system

Bad move...for the very reasons you describe in the rest of your post.

What you're considering can be a huge liability, and I suggest you reconsider the idea.

Reply

Answer 2

kristin. Author

Level 2

265 points

Oct 19, 2010 9:16 AM in response to Templeton Peck

What about using the iPhone Configuration Utility to create a configuration profile (then I could specify VPN, Exchange, wifi and other settings) and distribute it wirelessly to these phones via an MDM server? I think the MDM server would be key since then I'd be able to remotely remove the configuration profile, thus all company settings/email/calendar/etc. would be removed?

Reply

Answer 3

Oct 21, 2010 10:50 AM in response to kristin.

If you are considering this....first you should think if you have all your doors closed. I mean it is useless to care about the calendar/mail in the iphone if the user have a copy of his/her mailbox in a pst.

Have you blocked by policies to create PSTs? Are you auditing? What about USB memories and recordable CDs? If not, I think to remote deleting the mailbox could not be as important as you think.

But anyway I will give you a solution for exchange. You can implement a policy to empty certaing mailbox, in the next synchronization the user will not see anything. After a few days you can eliminate the mailbox.

hope that helps!

Reply

Answer 4

kristin. Author

Level 2

265 points

Oct 21, 2010 11:18 AM in response to sierranet

We're actually not using any Microsoft-based software, so I don't think .PSTs directly relate to this situation. None-the-less, the basic concept of what you're talking about in terms of numerous methods of having this data stored somewhere is understood and is being dealt with through various methods (both digitally enforced and through corporate policy). These methods have been in place for a long time and are ever-evolving with the technologies as they become available to both IT and the end user. The iPhone, being one of these "new" technologies that we're now dealing with and considering allowing to access out network and data, is the reason why I made the original post in the first place (it's not like employees requesting the use of their personal iPhones within our environment was the first time we've had to think about security).

Regarding emptying the mailbox so things are gone via the next sync — I have considered this (again, outside of the Exchange environment, but same concept), and while it definitely works, it does leave the remote possibility of the user knowing this might happen and not syncing. Again, a remote possibility, but one that has to be considered (thus why I'm looking into a more proactive solution like wirelessly having the MDM server delete the iPhone config profile, which would in turn remove the data with it, but even that isn't foolproof under the right circumstances...).

At the end of the day, there's always a key to the kingdom — the challenge is just making sure those keys are few and far between...

Regards,
Kristin.

Reply

Answer 5

stweath

Level 1

55 points

Oct 21, 2010 6:19 PM in response to kristin.

Kristen, while your desires to preserve the user's iPhone and only control the corporate data is admirable, it also may be unrealistic, without some additional purchases.

In my (limited) experience when a personal device is tied to the corporate account, whether a BB using the corporate BES or a WinMo/iPhone/other ActiveSync device, the company has a data access policy which generally says: "our data on your device is ours, and as such we reserve the right to remove that data when you leave our employ. This generally means that we will initiate a complete device wipe on your departure, which will remove everything from your device and require you to re-sync/reload all your personal stuff." Draconian, but generally accepted in the business world.

The only other option I could think of to wipe corporate data while preserving user data would be to use something along the lines of Good Technology (www.good.com), which sandboxes the corporate data.

Reply