"Hotmail used Secure HTTP (HTTPS) with SSL encryption to protect users' login credentials, and Microsoft forced customers to use more complex passwords—but the

"Hotmail used Secure HTTP (HTTPS) with SSL encryption to protect users' login credentials, and Microsoft forced customers to use more complex passwords—but the rest of the service ran over unencrypted HTTP. "Just the authentication piece required us to run hardware accelerators at the time" :O