Hi all, we are hiring a remote worker and will be supplying a laptop to them. The laptop will be running a Debian variant of Linux on it.

We are a small shop and this is the first time we have entrusted somebody outside of our small pool of trusted employees.

We have sensitive client data on the laptop that they need to access for their day-to-day work.

However, if something goes wrong, and they do the wrong thing, we want to be able to send out some kind of command or similar, that will completely lock, block, or wipe the sensitive data.

We don’t want any form of spying or tracking. We are not interested in seeing how they use the computer, or any of the logs. We just want to be able to delete that data, or block access, if they don’t return the laptop when they leave, or if they steal the laptop, or if they do the wrong thing.

What systems are in place in the world of Linux that could do this?

Any advice or suggestions are greatly appreciated? Thank you.

  • mvirts@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    I second the idea that this is a bad idea, but…

    Maybe a remote desktop solution is what you want, keep your data local or in your cloud account and provide remote access to a machine that can use it?

    You could roll your own self destruct script that will wipe the machine on boot if it hasn’t phoned home in a while. You would want to lock the bios and use secure boot. Qubes may have some relevant features.

    Also, consider getting a Chromebook instead. ChromeOS is already a walled garden and I think they are remote wipeable and they can run a Linux vm supported by elgoog.