I just screwed up my iphone settings by trying to add my work's exchange server

[The Stigenator]

So some people in this dept have dept. issued iphones. I am going on vacation next week and for quite some time was trying to get exchanged pushed to my phone.

Finally asked a coworker who has the official issued iphone and copied the server settings down.. no harm right?

Well the thing works for a while and then locks me out. It asks for a 16 digit password, i guessed that one, first 16 of pi, so I can finally get back into my phone.

However, safari is gone, I cant reset to a 4 digit password and it has changed all my settings.

Turns out the stupid iphone downloaded new config files from the server when it connected to the exchange server.. the coworkers phone was configured with the iphone configuration utility, so I am hoping i can hook it up to my desktop at home and check the iphone config they have setup and make changes.

I am running iOS 5.1... the last resort, remove the thing, restore the phone back to factory fresh after backing up pictures and what not.

 

[Juddog]

So some people in this dept have dept. issued iphones. I am going on vacation next week and for quite some time was trying to get exchanged pushed to my phone.

Finally asked a coworker who has the official issued iphone and copied the server settings down.. no harm right?

Well the thing works for a while and then locks me out. It asks for a 16 digit password, i guessed that one, first 16 of pi, so I can finally get back into my phone.

However, safari is gone, I cant reset to a 4 digit password and it has changed all my settings.

Turns out the stupid iphone downloaded new config files from the server when it connected to the exchange server.. the coworkers phone was configured with the iphone configuration utility, so I am hoping i can hook it up to my desktop at home and check the iphone config they have setup and make changes.

I am running iOS 5.1... the last resort, remove the thing, restore the phone back to factory fresh after backing up pictures and what not.

We do this at my job as well because it's basic security 101. Too many folks have work sensitive email, including ePHI data, etc. on their phones, that without extra security would be handily available to any thief who nabs the phone.

Basically if you want work email pushed to your phone, you should comply with the settings or alternately if your work has a webmail interface, use that instead. We're at the point now where it has become trivially easy to leak huge amounts of data, so higher security is a necessary evil.

 

[The Stigenator]

yeah i know about basic security 101, but i did not expect it to reset my phone when a non dept. authorized phone connected to the exchange servers..

you needed the domain key and other things, so you couldnt readily connect to it without that info, but when I did copy them over, it was stupid of them to put in a 16 digit key that took no more than 5 minutes for me to figure out.

I still dont know if its receiving emails, i will send a test email when i go to lunch and see if it goes through. Chances are I'll have to reset my phone and just use the web client. Which I hate, since Exchange for web does not have a mobile interface. Its too cumbersome to use.

 

[SSSnail]

I love how people just think they can do whatever at work, or with their company data without regards to anything else.

 

[ViviTheMage]

So some people in this dept have dept. issued iphones. I am going on vacation next week and for quite some time was trying to get exchanged pushed to my phone.

Finally asked a coworker who has the official issued iphone and copied the server settings down.. no harm right?

Well the thing works for a while and then locks me out. It asks for a 16 digit password, i guessed that one, first 16 of pi, so I can finally get back into my phone.

However, safari is gone, I cant reset to a 4 digit password and it has changed all my settings.

Turns out the stupid iphone downloaded new config files from the server when it connected to the exchange server.. the coworkers phone was configured with the iphone configuration utility, so I am hoping i can hook it up to my desktop at home and check the iphone config they have setup and make changes.

I am running iOS 5.1... the last resort, remove the thing, restore the phone back to factory fresh after backing up pictures and what not.

jesus, I would fire you on the spot.

 

[Juddog]

yeah i know about basic security 101, but i did not expect it to reset my phone when a non dept. authorized phone connected to the exchange servers..

you needed the domain key and other things, so you couldnt readily connect to it without that info, but when I did copy them over, it was stupid of them to put in a 16 digit key that took no more than 5 minutes for me to figure out.

I still dont know if its receiving emails, i will send a test email when i go to lunch and see if it goes through. Chances are I'll have to reset my phone and just use the web client. Which I hate, since Exchange for web does not have a mobile interface. Its too cumbersome to use.

I feel your pain, but in these times of everything getting hacked, most companies don't have a choice anymore. A company getting nailed with a data leak can face literally millions of dollars in damages, or worse yet, have their reputation soiled.

 

[Platypus]

Finally asked a coworker who has the official issued iphone and copied the server settings down.. no harm right?

You're lucky your phone is all that's messed up, you'd instantly be shown the door in my line of work.

 

[cl-scott]

To explain what is going on a bit, the Exchange server can push security settings to your phone, and then enforce those settings. You're going to either have to reset your phone using iTunes or get someone from the IT department at your place of work remove your phone.

 

[3chordcharlie]

To explain what is going on a bit, the Exchange server can push security settings to your phone, and then enforce those settings. You're going to either have to reset your phone using iTunes or get someone from the IT department at your place of work remove your phone.

And then fire you for not doing this through the proper channel?

I hope not, just saying...

 

[bearxor]

To explain what is going on a bit, the Exchange server can push security settings to your phone, and then enforce those settings. You're going to either have to reset your phone using iTunes or get someone from the IT department at your place of work remove your phone.

He might be able to log in to we mail and remove the device partnership himself. Then, uninstall all of the certificates off the device after he deletes the account from mail.

I have no idea if that will work, but t might be worth a shot first.

Also, if your workplace has that level of security set up, they're probably using some sort of MDM and they already know you tried to sync your phone up anyways.

 

[NutBucket]

Why would you want to have access to work stuff while on vacation? Might as well just go to work!

 

[The Stigenator]

well it was causing too much of a headache, i removed exchange, my phone came back to normal.. crisis averted..

Honestly I've been asking for a mobile web interface for outlook, but it seems outlook doesnt allow a mobile web interface.. its a royal pain in the butt to use without the push email feature.

oh well.. guess I wont be working / notified of stuff when shit hits the fan when i am gone..

 

[NutBucket]

Oh well...besides, are you going to run straight to the office if something did happen while you are on vacation?

 

[gorcorps]

I'm not sure what happens on the ios side, but if I put my exchange settings into my android it gives me a message when it can't connect that our admin requires me to agree to something...but it didn't affect anything else. I have to agree to let them remote wipe my phone if something ever happens which I'm not okay with. Makes sense if I lost it, but last year some European hacker group tried to screw with our system and had this agreement been in place then they would have panicked and wiped everybody's phone without warning.

 

[bearxor]

It depends on how strict your company wants to be. Right now, we only encrypt email, require a passcode, and use remote wipe.

We could be much larger pricks about it though.

 

[Juddog]

well it was causing too much of a headache, i removed exchange, my phone came back to normal.. crisis averted..

Honestly I've been asking for a mobile web interface for outlook, but it seems outlook doesnt allow a mobile web interface.. its a royal pain in the butt to use without the push email feature.

oh well.. guess I wont be working / notified of stuff when shit hits the fan when i am gone..

Completely honest answer - if your company expects you to be monitoring mission critical systems by email, you can make a business case for them to provide a company phone for you that they pay for. There would be zero cost to you.

 

[saratoga172]

Completely honest answer - if your company expects you to be monitoring mission critical systems by email, you can make a business case for them to provide a company phone for you that they pay for. There would be zero cost to you.

Exactly this. That's why I've got a work phone. It gets used a lot.

Luckily I work in the IT dept and I know we don't have any policies setup on devices. The owners would never let that fly...at least not currently.