Slashdot Mirror
MS Removes HTTPS From Hotmail For Troubled Nations
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."
Presumably the US could just ask MS nicely for a neat digest of accounts of interest, delivered from their US-located datacenters, rather than asking them nicely to turn off SSL, and then having to MITM a whole bunch of people in a variety of largely hostile locales...
SSL doesn't exactly keep Microsoft from reading your hotmail, it just keeps those between you and them from doing so(terms and restrictions may apply...)
Well, crypto is still regarded as munitions. Perhaps Microsoft is going to use this to say "we're not breaking the arms embargo but Firefox is"?
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
The company said users in the Bahamas, Cayman Islands, and Fiji were also affected.
Next week's headline:
"In unrelated news, local unrest reported in the tropics..."