| Under some conditions, a compromised device represents a threat to other computing resources on the network. For example, a compromised device may attempt to conduct a denial of service attack on other devices, or may be executing a mechanism to spread malware before a countermeasure has been put in place. In these situations, it is critical that mobile device management (MDM) be able to disable the device to protect other network resources. Disabling the device means disabling all user functionality with the exception of making emergency 911 calls. Disabling the device may, but needs not, render the device or resident data permanently inaccessible. For example, the MDM may lock the device such that it cannot be unlocked without an additional MDM instruction, but preserve data and applications if the device is later unlocked. Actions to restore the device to factory defaults still permit user functionality and therefore do not qualify as disabling the device. |
