Automating a Kill Switch for R&D tablets leaving the premises?Solved

@luke Be extremely careful with this. I tried to set up a strict geofence lockdown last year on a different MDM, and it was a disaster. The issue is physics. 

When our engineers went deep into the server rooms, they lost satellite line-of-sight. The Gps drifted just enough that the system thought they left the building, and it locked them out mid-task. Unless you have flawless indoor positioning, an automated “kill switch” is going to lock out your own staff and flood your helpdesk. 

@luke You can absolutely automate this in hexnode without falling into the GPS drift trap Nick mentioned. You just need to build a three-phase tripwire using the Automate engine. 

Here is the exact blueprint: 

1. Build a Forgiving Tripwire (The Geofence): Don’t use a standard circular radius. Go to Admin > geofencing and use the polygon tool to trace your facility. To avoid Nick’s drift issue, draw the polygon 15–20 meters outside your physical walls to create a grace zone. Then, in your baseline policy, go to Tracking and fencing > geofencing, attach that boundary, and deploy it to your R&D devices. 
2. Define the Rule of Engagement (Compliance): Geofencing just tracks movement; you have to tell Hexnode that leaving is a violation. Go to Policies > Compliance policy > New policy. Under Basic settings, enable the rule for “Device moves out of geofence.” When a device leaves, hexnode instantly flags it as “Location Non-Compliant”. 
3. Arm the Trap (Automated Remediation): This is where you get your instant kill switch. Navigate to the Automate tab and create a new automation. 
   • The Action: Scroll to Security actions. Choose Lock device (secures it behind a PIN with a custom message) or Enable Lost mode (completely freezes the tablet so it’s a brick until IT intervenes). 
   • The Trigger: Set the trigger to Activity and specifically select the “On Location Non-Compliance” event. 

The second that tablet hits the parking lot, the Automate engine catches the compliance flag and fires the Lock/Lost Mode command over the air before they even start their car.