15-minute passcode lock self-defeating

Question

I've learned that having an Exchange account (apparently only Exchange 2007, not 2003)  results in a diminished set of choices regarding the time interval before the passcode lock sets, and that is consistent with my experience: the four-hour option was available when I had only an Exchange 2003 account installed on the device, and this shortened to 15 minutes after installing an Exchange 2007 account. In my case, it is not a matter of an employer making the requirement: I am the employer, and I am using, in this case, Microsoft Business Online Productivity Services--i.e., hosted Exchange vs. in-house. I have not yet found a setting to override this ridiculously short interval on the Exchange server, but at least I know where to look, and it would not seem to be anywhere on my devices. The fact that I can choose not to use a passcode lock altogether demonstrates that this is not a security requirement imposed by the Exchange server, just a more limited range of options. The option not to use the passcode lock would not be available if it were a true security issue for Exchange, one presumes. I don't recall, by the way, such behavior in Windows smartphones I've had in the past.
Is anyone else finding the 15-minute passcode lock on the iPad and iPhone as annoying and dangerous as I am? I have disabled the lock altogether as a result. It is terribly annoying to have only 15 minutes to set my iPad aside before having to unlock it, and it renders the iPhone downright dangerous in the car--and I'm talking about turning iTunes on or off, or simply checking a map. I never talk or text while driving.
I thought four hours was a reasonable (for me) compromise between security and usability, but someone (Apple? Microsoft?) has decided we all need more protection than that and has reduced the intervals to a mere 15-minute maximum. Now I have no other security than wiping my device remotely if it falls out of my possession. The setting screen tells us that "shorter times are more secure," as if it were scolding us. I would have even greater security if I had never bought the devices, but that is beside the point.
I don't understand why users should not be able to decide for themselves the degree of passcode security they desire and need on their devices.

Answer 1

Rocka wrote:
Common... Go to **** with security, there's not much security regarding iOS anyway. This was a convenient setting for various reasons, like locking the device overnight so kids can't play with my iPad in the morning.
Unlocking it everytime I need to use my camera (Camera+), check email, or write something is a nonsense. So I understand those resulting in NO LOCK AT ALL.
Pitty, having it set for an hour or two was a great "semi-secure" thing. Now there's nothing.
Why the heck is it related to Exchange? Is this some kind of Gates' revenge or what?
And what's the point in having a full choice from 1-2-3-4-5 minutes on the iPhone - what's the security difference between 3 and 5 minutes? Can anybody tell?
Regarding the car conversations - those who conversate while driving are dangerous? How can we eliminate in-car conversations then? Forbid couples and families driving together?
The exchange feature allows the owner of the exchange server (and thus the one who controls the exchange accounts hosted on it) the ability to secure their empolyees accounts.  Since anything their employees house on the company's exchange server is the property of the company, they get to set the security policy as they see fit.  Exchange then pushes out a security certificate over the air that overrides the default security of the device's OS and emposes the corporate policy.  So no, it has nothing to do with Bill Gates, it has to do with a system that is primarily geared towards enterprise and corporate deployment, and enabling the owners of those systems to empose their own security standards and practices on devices used to connect to their corporate servers.  It also, btw, gives them the ability to remotely wipe your exhange account off the device at any time.
I've never worked for any company that allows empolyees to use personal cell phones for access to company accounts without using some means of imposing security on the connecting devices - Exchange allows them a simple and standard way to do that.
A passcode lock on an iOS device offers at least as much security as possible on any smart phone.  If employed with reasonable time out settings to avoide giving a theif open access, it does offer good protection against anyone actually gaining access to information on the device.  They can always restore the device as new, wiping it clean in the process, and go about using it as theirs, but your information at least, has been secured.
It is certainly more than something to merely keep the kids out. If you use online banking or other financial apps, don't want someone reading your email or getting the addresses of all your family and friends, keep work documents or other confidential information, then you should be using a passcode lock on your device, with a fairly short default timeout.  Complain about the inconvenience all you wish, but don't disable the security passcode and then complain when the device is stolen and someone uses the infromation to aid them in stealing your identity, spam'ing your contacts, sending your personal photo's to anyone and everyone, posting your personal information on web sites, or whatever else they may do with full access to your iPhone and its contents.
To my mind, it would be akin to leaving the doors to your house unlocked and wide open, because you find the act of having to dig keys out of your pocket everytime you come home too inconvenient.  Of course, you are free to do that too, but then don't complain when someone walks away with all your personal items and information.  Or perhaps a better analogy would be, don't complain when someone walks in to your house, sits down at your computer (which of course you have left logged in, or have set to autologin every time) and happily reads your email, copies down your online passwords, goes into your accounts and generally makes your life far, far more "inconvenient" then it ever would have been had you just logged out, and locked the door.
There is a reason why identity theft is a multi-billion dollar a year crime category - so many people make it so easy for their personal information to be compromised that a world full of unsecured smart phones and tablets is a crook's dream world, like a kid in a candy shop.