Anyone putting anything senstive over an open airport network is ignorant. The network themselves are insecure so this hype doesn't really mean a thing. Just another attack on microsoft.
A lot of people don't recognize the dangers of using unsecured wireless networks and should be warned. Of course, few of the ignorant are likely to be reading ComputerWorld.
I don't know if it is an attack on MS exactly... it really speaks to the inherent problems of 802.11x in general.
On a legit, but open, wifi network a user can still use their VPN and firewall to minimize the risk of the open wifi.
But attacks like this are after the casual or careless user anyway. A packet sniffer on the man-in-the-middle machine could harvest a wealth of stuff in no time.