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Microsoft admits utter incompetence - ActiveSync over Wi-Fi debacle goes on November 09, 2006 [General] | By Edward J. R. To paraphrase the situation Microsoft says "we cannot use electricity because it is too dangerous, so we reverted back to oil lamps". Instead of firing the person responsible for this debacle and fixing the problem, Microsoft is publishing further justifications that combine arrogance with incompetence... What is the issue? Well, before Windows Mobile 5.0 arrived users of Windows Mobile PDAs and phones could connect over Wi-Fi to their PC and could synchronize over ActiveSync their contacts, calendar events and could browse files on the Windows Mobile device from PC, etc. Then with introduction of Windows Mobile 5.0 Microsoft forced upon users introduction of new ActiveSync (version 4 and newer), where this feature was removed "due to security reasons". The security reasons of course were that all communication between PC and Windows Mobile device was not encrypted and authentication was weak so that if somebody overheard this communication (by using network sniffers for example) then one could not only see everything but also one could pretend to be Windows Mobile device. Obviously with use of complex Wi-Fi security measures like WPA2-TKIP (WPA2 = authentication, TKIP - pre-shared key based encryption) this problem is moot because then EVERYTHING is very well encrypted and authenticated so Microsoft should "switch off this feature by default, add security warning but leave it for users to enjoy". Instead some utterly incompetent Microsoft employee disregarded the fact that many thousands of Windows Mobile users depend on this feature and simply decided to remove it. Now Microsoft is admitting utter incompetence by saying that it was wrong in first place to put this feature into Windows Mobile. But if this feature was once good and it is wrong nowadays then how can we ever trust Microsoft? Mike Calligaro from Microsoft USA writes: There are a number of things we can do to fix it, including adding encryption and authentication. All of them, however, are a ton of work that needs to get prioritized against all the other things we need to do in ActiveSync. I can tell you definitively that the team responsible wants to re-enable desktop ActiveSync over WiFi. But I have to also tell you that they have a lot of other things they need to do first. ... or in other words: Microsoft has other things to do than worry about such tiny thing as customer satisfaction! One simple way to fix it is: to disable it by default, to add security warning message but make such synchronization possible. Of course making it properly and adding another layer of authentication and encryption would be good too, but Microsoft must understand that several people are running heavy Wi-Fi security measures (including WPA-TKIP and WPA2-TKIP) and they don't worry about overhearing of communication at all! Unfortunately Microsoft still doesn't understand it and instead prefers to disseminate empty marketing pep-talk. Somebody at Microsoft should be fired for this debacle. To read more click here. Credit: Sam.  Post your comment (free registration is required to post, but if you register you can edit your posts later) [ 6 Comments ]
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