Built-in Mobile Device Management to be removed from F-Secure Freedome for Business F-Secure has made the decision to end its own Mobile Device Management (MDM) solution as a part of F-Secure Freedome for Business, F-Secure Elements Endpoint Protection. Mobile Device Management is a solution used by companies for mobile fleet management.
This change took place on 26 March, 2019.
What does this mean in practice?
Removing F-Secure's own MDM from Freedome for Business means that after the removal date:
- F-Secure Freedome for Business installations will no longer include the built-in Mobile Device Management functionality. In other words, the Anti-theft settings, such as the Lock and Wipe buttons will be grayed out in the F-Secure Elements EPP Portal. Also, the enforcing passcode settings will not work after the removal date.
- F-Secure will continue supporting 3rd party MDM solutions with 'Freedome for Business for External MDM', such as VMware Workspace ONE, MobileIron, Intune, Miradore and MaaS360.
Why this decision?
Up until now, F-Secure has supported MDM by embedding its own MDM solution into F-Secure Freedome for Business, as well as by supporting 3rd party MDM solutions.
Our built-in MDM in F-Secure Freedome for Business was not used enough to make the complex installation flow justifiable. Also, the set of features in our own MDM was not competitive enough.
The reason to remove our own MDM solution from the product is to streamline and simplify the installation flow for F-Secure Freedome for Business.
In doing so, we hope that this will offer our customers an improved customer experience.
Changes in Freedome for Business after the MDM is removed
After the removal of F-Secure's own MDM functionality, the following features will no longer be available in the F-Secure Elements Endpoint Protection portal:
- Profiles for mobile devices
- Remote lock & wipe (Anti-theft). The Lock & Wipe buttons will be grayed out in the portal.
- Enforcing passcodes
The following features will remain unchanged:
- Mobile VPN
- Application protection through Android installation packet scanning
- Browsing protection
- Tracking protection for HTTP traffic
- Real-time visibility (monitoring security status of mobiles)
- WiFi protection
- MDM support (3rd party tools)
The following will improve:
- Easy and straightforward installation
- Future feature development will be faster
Changes in the F-Secure Elements Endpoint Protection portal after the MDM is removed
The Devices page: There will not be much difference as full upstream data will still be fetched from the app directly and regularly. The Freedome for Business app starts actively posting upstream status to the portal; that is, always setting status to Active (previously was Protected). Also, the following information will continue to show in the portal: license information, device app status, OS versions as well as the UDID code.
Most of the mobile operations will be removed and only the following two operations will be supported:
- Resending of the welcome email
- Removing the device.
The Profiles page: The Mobile devices tab will be removed as mobile profile settings are no longer needed.
How do I uninstall F-Secure's built-in MDM manually from my mobile device?
To uninstall the F-Secure MDM manually, use the following instructions:
Uninstall the MDM profile from an iOS device
Note: The following instructions remove both the MDM profile and the Freedome for Business app. To continue using Freedome for Business, you need to reinstall the app after uninstalling the MDM profile.
- Go to Settings > General > Profiles & Device Management and then select Mobile Device Management.
- Tap Remove Management.
- Enter you device passcode.
- To confirm, tap Remove Management.
Uninstall the Device Agent from an Android device
- Go to Settings > Security Settings > Device Administration > Device Admin Apps.
- Tap on F-Secure Device Agent and then tap Deactivate.
- To confirm, tap OK.
- To remove the Device Agent, tap Uninstall.