The wipe feature allows the Kerio MailServer administrator to remove content of synchronized folders or even of the whole mobile device (so called hard reset) by a single click. This feature may be helpful when the device gets lost or stolen. This makes the data stored on the devices more secure. In addition to data clear-out, this action also disables further connections of the device to Kerio MailServer by disallowing connection of the device to the server by the original user login data.
Since the device types and operating systems are different, it depends on these conditions whether it is possible to reset the device completely or only to clear out synchronized folders. Remote hard restart is supported only by Windows Mobile 5.0 AKU2 and higher. Since older versions of Windows Mobile do not support this feature, only data synchronized by ActiveSync can be removed remotely.
Note: It is not possible to use this feature to perform remote memory cards wipes. However, memory cards usually store also email attachments. ActiveSync supports wipe-out of any synchronized data, including the attachments. This means that the wipe removes all data on the device as well as any attachments, including those which are stored on the memory card.
To perform remote wipe-out, go to the Domain Settings → User Accounts section of the administration console:
Select the user whose data will be removed from the device.
Right-click to open the pop-up menu and select
.This opens a dialog where mobile devices of the particular user can be administered (see figure 36.1 Administration of mobile devices).
Select the device where the data should be wiped out and click on
.The wipe-out process will be completed upon the next connection of the device to Kerio MailServer. Users who have lost their devices should be informed that they should not run the synchronization if they find it and they should contact the administrators and ask them to cancel the wipe-out before the device is used again. The wipe action process can be cancelled by the button which appears when the button is used.
Details of the wipe process are recorded in the Security log (the Security log is addressed in section 25.4 Security).
On Windows Mobile operating systems, user confirmation of the synchronizations security policy is required for wipe actions. In other words, it is necessary that the user agrees that the administrator performs the wipe action. Therefore, a dialog (see figure 36.2 Wipe confirmation) appears which must be confirmed by the user during the first data synchronization between the device and Kerio MailServer (usually immediately upon the moment when login data for ActiveSync is set in Kerio MailServer). if not confirmed, it is not possible to complete the synchronization process.
This measure is applied for security reasons.