IT Policy problem - Allow Outgoing Call When Locked
 

I have tried this on several handhelds and it does not seem to work.

Create a test IT policy. Require a password and enable to "Allow Outgoing Call When Locked" policy. Both the handheld and the server show the policy being applied successfully. No matter what I try, I can't get this policy to actually work. Is it just my server or is this a problem with BES 4.0 in general?

Other BES Admins: please give this a try and let me know if it does work.

After applying the policy for "Allow Outgoing Call When Locked" you need to enable this function under Options->Security on the handheld.

Too bad they didn't enable the phone button on the top of the Blackberry--and that you have to select a menu item before you make a call. :|

I'm just curious, but why would you want to do this anyway? Doesn't this defeat the purpose of locking the device?

It depends on what your priority is... in many cases protecting the data that is on the Blackberry is far more important than preventing someone from making calls.

It's obviously a trade-off between ease of use, and how concerned you are about somebody stealing your phone and using it to make calls (as opposed to accessing the potentially confidential data that is on it).

jdh has got it right. Also, I think if reported as lost or stolen to your company admin on a BES they can remotely wipe the unit and totally disable it. So the only period one is at risk of the phone being used is from the time lost to the time reported.

The BES Admin can certainly wipe the device or lock the device, and of course can change the policy in the process to prevent outgoing calls when the device is locked.

However, if the Admin simply wipes the device without locking it (which are two separate steps), or the user wipes it themselves (which can be done simply by entering a wrong password 10 times), then the phone portion is still going to be completely useable. All of the data will be gone, but the SIM card still has a valid phone number.

Therefore, corporately what needs to be done is that the IT department would need to wipe the device and then call the cell phone provider and report it lost/stolen so that the phone account can be cancelled/suspended.

Does this mean the user can still use the handheld to make phone calls, or do they need to remove the SIM card to a different device to make a call? It was my understanding that the kill-switch disables the radio, and the radio used for data-comm is one-and-the-same as the radio used to make phone calls...?

Address Book Available
 

We would like to enable this feature but it makes the Address book available so it compromises our security...also can perform GAL lookups I believe.

I have never seen this on any blackberry I have ever seen... are you sure?

corey, the policy option mentioned needs to be enabled and pushed to the handheld in order for that option to be available in the security options.

robemorr, you are correct on both points. however, it is not as cut and dry to access the address book (where you'd have access to GAL lookups) as simply clicking and selecting... you do have to hold in the talk button for a few seconds.

We've just been testing this policy and have found that this feature also allows you to PIN or e-mail users from the GAL while being locked. Once you call up the address book, you do have access to Lookup which then gives you full access to all information stored in the GAL. Perhaps something that got overlooked in the development?

I have this policy enabled and have voiced my concerns about it. Upper management feels that the informatioin in the contacts is less a concern than the email on the BBs. I have to agree (reluctantly) that the information in contacts is not a major concern than to be able to get into the email stored on the BBs.

Anyway, it is pretty easy to set this in policy. The trick is to get all of your deployed BB users to follow instructions to turn it on. It would be nice if they (RIM) could get Policy to force this setting on the handhelds.

Can anybody please explain to me how to get into the address book? I have the policy set but how do I get into the address book?

There is another reason to allow this option. I've had one user who set a password, then couldn't remember it. I couldn't remotely change it because he had his antenna off. We probably could have just told it to make an emergency call, and cancelled as soon as the antenna came back on, but having them make a normal call is safer.

We just applied this policy change and users still are not satisfied. They want both phone and address book access. Posts above indicate that this is possible, we just can't seem to find the way to make it happen. Advice is appreciated!

I am trying precisely to access the address book while the device is locked to make outgoing calls, but somehow not able to make this work.

I can make outgoing calls while the device is locked but unable to access the address book, what settings do you have to make the address book available?

We run version 4.0 and use BES, the device I have is a 7290.

I have also set up the IT policy to allow calls whilst locked.
Same issue - users would like to be able to access notes address book directory. I understand that this means a potential leak of corporate data so am not too concerned.
However I would have thought that you should be able to at least access the SIM Phone Book to make calls from ?? I mean that would make the device more like a normal mobile phone.....otherwise you can only free type numbers...use recen call history or speed dials...not that good when some users have 100's of contacts!!

Any ideas....any workarounds?

I am running Bes 4.0.2 and 7290/7100's on v4.0 +

Answer for locked address book access?
 

Do you ever get an answer? We have the same "problem" with BES 4.12 and 8703e.

Thanks.

In our testing the address books - both local and global are NOT accessible
you can dial recently called numbers

If you think about it exposing more than a few recently called numbers would be huge security problem

Doug