MS Removes HTTPS From Hotmail For Troubled Nations 147
An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft has removed HTTPS from Hotmail for many US-embargoed or otherwise troubled countries. The current list of countries for which they no longer enable HTTPS is known to include Bahrain, Morocco, Algeria, Syria, Sudan, Iran, Lebanon, Jordan, Congo, Myanmar, Nigeria, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan. Journalists and others whose lives may be in danger due oppressive net monitoring in those countries may wish to use HTTPS everywhere and are also encouraged to migrate to non-Microsoft email providers, like Yahoo and Google." Update: 03/26 17:08 GMT by T : Reader Steve Gula adds the caveat that "Yahoo! only does HTTPS for authentication unless you're a paying member."
Easy to remedy (Score:3, Informative)
Obsolete info (Score:5, Informative)
It was a bug, it has been fixed.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/03/26/microsoft_https_hotmail_syria/
Cool it. (Score:5, Informative)
Microsoft is blaming a mystery bug for preventing access to the encrypted version of Hotmail, denying that it deliberately blocked access to the service in Syria.
On Friday afternoon, the company told The Reg that Hotmail users who had already enabled the HTTPS version of the popular email service were still able to use it. Only Hotmailers trying to turn on HTTPS for the first time in certain countries and languages were being blocked, Microsoft said.
People trying to connect were greeted with the message: "Your Windows Live ID can't use HTTPS automatically because this feature is not available for your account type."
Microsoft said it still doesn't know what caused the bug, but it has been resolved and the company is investigating the cause. "We do not intentionally limit support by region or geography and this issue was not restricted to any specific region of the world. We apologize for any inconvenience to our customers that this may have caused," a Microsoft spokesperson said.
The company said users in the Bahamas, Cayman Islands, and Fiji were also affected.
Microsoft: Mystery bug blocks Syrian secure Hotmail [theregister.co.uk]
Sun worshipers and fat cats hit too [March 26]
Banned in China (Score:3, Informative)
Cryptography is banned in China and territories under their control without a permit by the "communist" party regime. They will have keys for the crypto they allow their subjects to use.
Big and compliant foreign firms may apply for an exception but obviously that doesn't mean their operations haven't been breached from within.
Re:FUCK Microsoft (Score:5, Informative)
So not a good thing on MS's part, apparently, but at least lets have some decent information.
Re:The Point? (Score:1, Informative)
Microsoft says this has been a bug which has been corrected today:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/03/26/microsoft_https_hotmail_syria/ [theregister.co.uk]
The whole thread is mislead.
Re:FUCK Microsoft (Score:5, Informative)
Apparently it was a bug:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/03/26/microsoft_https_hotmail_syria/ [theregister.co.uk]
Comment removed (Score:3, Informative)
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Easy to remedy (Score:4, Informative)
Maybe the same reason that Windows is still the most popular OS. They were the first to make it easy and convenient, and nobody's bothered to change.