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Microsoft Denies HTTPS Shutdown Was Intentional
jbrodkin writes "Microsoft acknowledged that Hotmail's HTTPS encryption service was shut off for users in some countries, but denied that it was because of an intentional ploy to limit email security in countries that have experienced anti-government protests and limits on freedom of expression. 'We do not intentionally limit support by region or geography and this issue was not restricted to any specific region of the world,' Microsoft said. Syria, Morocco, Bahrain, Iran, Lebanon, Jordan and Algeria were among the affected countries, but the problem is now resolved."
There were people who RTFA and sources (unlike the /. editor who accepted it) the first time around who posted this information in the comments section. There never should have been a story in the first place.
1) HTTPS gets turned off for a few hours in most of Northern Africa and the Middle East, and a few pacific islands
2) Several countries in the Middle East are experiencing unrest, therefore
3) IT MUST BE INTENTIONAL!!11
People who had opted into HTTPS in all these countries could still use it. It's just that other users couldn't opt in. And they fixed it quickly when it was brought up. Why would anyone suppose it was intentional? And the Bahamas, Cayman Islands, and Fiji were also affected. I suppose Microsoft was sucking up to their dictators?
1) HTTPS gets turned off for a few hours in most of Northern Africa and the Middle East, and a few pacific islands 2) Several countries in the Middle East are experiencing unrest, therefore 3) IT MUST BE INTENTIONAL!!11
Not to take away from your argument (I agree that Hanlon's Razor applies here) but the South Pacific island nation mentioned in the Register story is Fiji, which is currently ruled military junta that regularly practices censorship and suppresses both free speech and fair journalism. Of all the nations mentioned, the only one that I saw that doesn't have a government that's anti-free-press is the Bahamas. (Congo might count, but only because it doesn't really have a functioning government.)
Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
...but Microsoft is trying to fool us twice... yeah, shame on us.
Choice quote below, the parallel with this http "bug" is impressive::
When I originally wrote about this issue [bing Chinese search censorship] back in June, Microsoft protested. “From what you described, that’s not the way Bing is supposed to work,” wrote Kevin Kutz, a company spokesman. He said that Chinese speakers at Microsoft could not replicate my results and did not detect this kind of skewed result. I sent screen shots, and then Microsoft acknowledged the issue but said that it was simply a temporary mistake. “It’s a bug,” Kutz told me. Later, he added: “What’s important is it’s getting fixed.” Soon, he said, Bing searches would be the same for Tiananmen and other sensitive subjects, whatever the language.
(Thanks to pushing-robot for originally posting the link on /. here.