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Protecting lost, stolen, or replaced BlackBerry devices

You can send IT administration commands over the wireless network immediately to protect your organization's confidential data that is stored on BlackBerry® devices.

IT administration command

Description

Set a Password and Lock Handheld

This command creates a new password and locks a lost BlackBerry device remotely. You can communicate the new password to the user when the user locates the BlackBerry device. When the user unlocks the BlackBerry device, the BlackBerry device prompts the user to accept or reject the password change.

Erase Data and Disable Handheld

This command deletes all user information and application data remotely that a BlackBerry device stores.

You can use this command to prepare a BlackBerry device to assign it to another user in your organization or to protect a stolen BlackBerry device.

Protect a stolen BlackBerry device

  1. In the BlackBerry® Administration Service, on the BlackBerry solution management menu, expand User.
  2. Click Manage users.
  3. Search for a user account.
  4. In the search results, click the PIN for the user account.
  5. In the Device activation list, click Delete all device data and disable device.
  6. Click Yes - Delete all device data and disable device.
After you finish:
  • Verify that the BlackBerry device received the command.
  • Contact your organization's wireless service provider to turn off the service for a BlackBerry device after you send the IT administration command that deletes all of the BlackBerry device data and deactivates the BlackBerry device.

Protect a lost device

If a user misplaces a BlackBerry® device or if a device is stolen, you can protect the data on the device by locking the device or making it unavailable.
  1. In the BlackBerry Administration Service, on the BlackBerry solution management menu, expand User.
  2. Click Manage users.
  3. Search for a user account.
  4. In the search results, click the PIN for the user account.
  5. In the Device activation section, click Specify new device password and lock device.
  6. Type and confirm an activation password. For devices that are running BlackBerry® Device Software version 4.1 and earlier, the password must not contain special characters. Some devices do not support special characters and do not unlock when a user types a password that contains special characters.
  7. Click Specify new device password and lock device.

Protect a lost BlackBerry device that a user might recover

If a BlackBerry® device is lost but the BlackBerry device user might recover it, you can protect the information on the BlackBerry device by scheduling it to start deleting all user information and application data and to become unavailable after a period of time that you specify. You can also specify whether the user can cancel the scheduled command if the user recovers the BlackBerry device.
  1. In the BlackBerry Administration Service, on the BlackBerry solution management menu, expand User.
  2. Click Manage users.
  3. Search for a user account.
  4. In the search results, click the PIN for the user account.
  5. In the Device activation section, click Delete all device data and disable device.
  6. In the Erase Data Settings section, perform the following actions:

    • In the Erase Data Delay (hours) field, type the number of hours that must elapse before the BlackBerry device starts deleting user information and application data.

    • In the Allow User Override drop-down list, click Yes to permit the user to cancel the scheduled command on the BlackBerry device if the user recovers it.
  7. Click Yes - Delete all device data and disable device.
Next topic: Managing the delivery of BlackBerry Java Applications, BlackBerry Device Software, and device settings to BlackBerry devices
Previous topic: Protecting and reassigning BlackBerry devices

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