Why are agent connections blocked?

Agent connectivity to the Absolute Monitoring Center may be restricted based on a device's geographical location.

Due to US export regulations and our status as a US-based company, Absolute is legally required to refrain from providing products and services to devices located in countries sanctioned by the US government.

For the purposes of fulfilling this legal requirement, the location of a device is always determined by its reported public IP address, even if other geolocation technologies are available.

The following countries are currently sanctioned:

  • Belarus

  • Cuba

  • Iran

  • North Korea

  • Russia

  • Russian occupied regions of Ukraine

  • Syria

Note that Absolute treats fully and certain partially sanctioned countries in the same manner.

Absolute blocks the following communication originating from a device in a sanctioned country:

  • Device activations

    Attempts to enroll and activate new devices that reside in a sanctioned country will fail.

  • Agent connections

    When an enrolled device moves to a sanctioned country, all agent connections are blocked. As a result, device data ceases to be updated in the Secure Endpoint Console, and all submitted device action requests stay in a Pending state and are not sent to the device. Note that actions that were in progress on the device before it moved to the sanctioned country will be processed. Similarly, previously set Offline Freeze rules will be completed, if triggered.

    With the first blocked connection, the following events occur in the console:

    • A Connection blocked event is logged to Event History

    • A status alert banner is added to the device's Device Details page

      To view the event associated with the banner, go to the device's History page and search for "Connection blocked".

    When a device leaves a sanctioned country, agent connections resume. With the first successful connection, the following events occur in the console:

    • A Connection unblocked event is logged to Event History.

    • The status alert banner is removed from the device's Device Details page.

    Any pending device action requests are then sent to the device and processed.

    When a device enters or exits a sanctioned country, active Location rules do not trigger notifications, even if the country is included in the rule. To receive notifications for these scenarios, configure Alert rules based on the Connection blocked or Connection unblocked events.