Globally, there has been a massive surge in the use of mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones. These portable devices are irreplaceable in modern times. The number of mobile devices is expected to rise from USD 15 billion in 2021 to USD 18.22 billion by 20251. With the widespread adoption of remote work, mobile devices have risen to the top of the list of the most crucial assets a firm needs to retain productivity. As the number of mobile devices grows, so does the need for global organizations to manage them effectively. This is where mobile device management (MDM) has been vastly recognized in the corporate world.
Businesses of all sizes are rapidly implementing MDM solutions to streamline their mobility management. The MDM market valued at USD 3.97 billion in 2021 is predicted to reach USD 21.30 by 20292. A tool that is being highly appreciated by enterprises is still receiving some resistance from end users. While enterprise IT teams are relieved to have MDM by their side, the end users cannot wait to get rid of the restrictions imposed by MDM software, especially on their personal devices.
Resistance to MDM: Who Is Behind the Jailbreaking Devices
Mobile Device Management helps businesses across diverse industries secure their devices, protect their data, and monitor their inventory remotely. From healthcare and education to banking, logistics, retail, and hospitality, MDM tools have applications everywhere.
Several schools and universities have implemented MDM solutions to provide school-owned tablets and laptops to their students. These devices are tailored to promote learning and keep distractions at bay. Undoubtedly, they are secured with countless restrictions to ensure that students do not browse explicit content or distract themselves with gaming apps. Students, on the other hand, may try persistently to identify and eliminate the restrictions.
Almost every enterprise exploring mobility has implemented MDM solutions to gain visibility of their employees, monitor device usage, and track compliance. Industries like logistics, mining, construction, warehousing, etc., have a constantly moving workforce. MDM solutions help IT teams provision their devices remotely and ensure maximum productivity. Unfortunately, for the employees, this means working on a device that has tons of restrictions to ensure work-specific usage.
Unlike office environments, employees are not immediately answerable to their supervisors when working remotely. In such situations, employees may be tempted to delete the MDM software to remove the policies set on their devices.
Employees are increasingly accessing business networks and resources from remote locations. This increases the chances of them encountering security risks, resulting in corporate data breaches. If an employee’s device is lost or stolen, unauthorized persons with ulterior motives may try to jailbreak the devices to lay hands on corporate resources.
MDM solutions help organizations secure their employee devices with passcode policies, data encryption, and conditional access. However, if unwanted users manage to delete the MDM profile from the device, your sensitive business information can fall into the wrong hands.
Ways To Restrict Users From Removing MDM Administration With Scalefusion
There is no consistent way to ensure your users don’t remove MDM profiles and policies from their devices. With Scalefusion MDM, you can take certain preventive measures to make your MDM tool non-removable.
1. Configure Exit Passcode
You can enforce four-digit exit passwords for your Android device profiles created from the Scalefusion dashboard. These passcodes bring the end-user devices out of the Scalefusion-managed state. Without entering an exit passcode, the end-users cannot delete the Scalefusion client or remove the pre-configured MDM policies on their devices.
2. Leverage Security Incidents Compliance Alert
Your end-users may sometimes try to take matters into their own hands and attempt to unenroll their devices by trying out various exit passcodes. Scalefusion enables you to receive compliance alerts based on security incidents that track force exit attempts on Android and iOS devices. You can further choose to alert the user via email or send a message informing them about the incident.
With Scalefusion’s extensive reporting capabilities, you can track all the security incidents and filter them based on users to obtain a detailed log of user activities.
3. Enable Factory Reset Protection for Android
When you set up Android devices using the EMM method, it prevents users from deleting the Scalefusion app. Users can still factory reset devices using OEM hardware keys. Factory resetting has always been a problem for IT admins when managing devices since it wipes off all the restrictions configured on the devices.
Scalefusion offers Factory Reset Protection (FRP) for IT admins to prevent Android EMM and Samsung Knox devices from unauthorized factory resets. If a device is factory reset using the OEM hardware keys or the Scalefusion dashboard, only specific pre-approved email accounts can be used to set up the devices.
4. Disable Safe Mode for Android
Android Safe Mode is a useful feature that allows users to identify app problems on their Android devices. Android Safe Mode lets you block all third-party apps so that you can identify whether the issue lies in any of the apps or your OS. This feature can be troublesome for IT admins managing company-owned Android devices. With Android Safe Mode, users can easily block all third-party apps, including the MDM software, and access their full device.
You can overcome this challenge by password-protecting the Android Safe Mode from your Scalefusion dashboard. This feature prevents unauthorized usage of Safe Mode by mandating the end user to enter a password when the device boots in Safe Mode.
5. Configure RBAC
Besides setting restrictions on your employee or student devices, Scalefusion also lets you create access rights and roles for various users. Not all users can access the Scalefusion dashboard and toggle the policies and settings created on various user and device groups.
Scalefusion’s role-based access control lets you pick who can view and modify settings on the dashboard. Restrict viewers that access the dashboard by viewing the exit passcode (for Android profiles). MDM also prevents users from resetting fully-managed mobile devices.
Closing Lines
Mobile device management simplifies the mobility journey and helps businesses manage remote work environments with confidence. Scalefusion offers powerful capabilities to ensure that your devices stay MDM-managed.
