How to lock or wipe a lost laptop remotely using Rippling IT

What you'll learn

• How to respond when a company laptop is lost or stolen using Rippling Device Management

• How Rippling uses the Rippling Agent and MDM to send remote lock and wipe commands

What you'll need

• Rippling IT with Device Management

• Company computers that are enrolled in Rippling Device Management, have the Rippling Agent installed, and can connect to the internet

The problem

Lost or stolen laptops create immediate security risk. Sensitive data may still be stored locally, browsers may be logged in, and company accounts may remain active. Without centralized device management, IT teams depend on manual checks, slow response times, and inconsistent processes.

Traditional MDM tools often make remote wipe or lock difficult to use. Some require a device to be on a corporate network. Others provide little visibility into whether the command was received.

The hypothesis

If you can easily lock or wipe lost laptops using Rippling IT, they’ll have a consistent and reliable way to secure data on missing machines.

The solution

1. Archive the stolen device in the Devices tab

When a laptop is reported stolen, you can locate it in the Devices tab and archive it. Archiving removes it from active use and prompts Rippling to ask you whether the device was stolen so the correct security steps can be applied.

2. Choose how to handle data on the stolen device

After marking the device as stolen, Rippling provides several options for securing the data. You can:

• Leave the device as is. This will make no changes to the device.

• Lock user accounts. This will lock the user accounts on the device so that only the Rippling admin account can log in. No other changes will be made to the device.

• Lock device. This will lock the device and require a recovery PIN in order to unlock it. This is only available for macOS devices.

• Soft wipe. This will remove the existing user accounts and data. The Rippling admin account will be left in place.

Full wipe. This will remove data on the device, including user accounts, files, and the operating system, and restore the factory settings.

3. Confirm and finalize the security action

Before finishing the archive, Rippling asks IT to review and confirm their choices since some actions permanently delete data. Once confirmed, the command is queued and will complete as soon as the device connects to the internet.

The impact

✓ IT can lock or wipe lost or stolen company machines

✓ Soft wipe, full wipe, and lock options provide different levels of protection for different situations

By managing company computers with Rippling Device Management, IT teams get a consistent process to secure company data when a laptop goes missing, instead of relying on ad hoc steps and manual follow-up.

FAQs