Device Encryption for Exchange, 3.1

The iPhone 3GS was the first update to the device with features that were squarely targeted on the enterprise marketplace. However, after the 3GS was released in the last quarter of 2009, users of older iPhone models who upgraded to the accompanying 3.1 update to iOS suddenly found that they couldn’t synch their phone to their Exchange e-mail account. The issue wasn’t a “bug.” Rather, the update was just evidence that a critical Microsoft Exchange feature – server side encryption – was finally being enforced because the 3GS iPhones supported the feature. The result: owners of the new 3GS were able to access their encrypted Exchange e-mail accounts, while owners of earlier iPhones were left twisting on the line with support. Apple eventually fixed the disparity, but users were left wondering about the company’s messy roll out – and about the months that they spent prior to the release of 3.1, assuming their Exchange sessions were encrypted when they were not.