«There is one company benefiting from this status quo: Microsoft itself.»
US senator Ron Wyden has written a letter to the FTC requesting that the organisation investigate Microsoft for what he calls «gross cybersecurity negligence.» His complaint is primarily related to a form of encryption still supported by the company’s Windows operating system, which the senator’s office believes is vulnerable to ransomware attacks.
In the letter [PDF warning], Senator Wyden reveals that an investigation his office conducted into a ransomware breach of healthcare provide Ascension last year found that support of the RC4 encryption cipher was a direct contributor to the attack (via Ars Technica).
“Because of dangerous software engineering decisions by Microsoft, which the company has largely hidden from its corporate and government customers, a single individual at a hospital or other organization clicking on the wrong link can quickly result in an organization-wide ransomware infection,” said Wyden.
«Microsoft has utterly failed to stop or even slow down the scourge of ransomware enabled by its dangerous software.»
RC4, or Rivest Cipher 4, was developed in 1987 by mathematician and cryptographer Ron Rivest, and was considered a protected method of encryption until 1994, when it was compromised as a result of a leaked technical description. Despite this, RC4 was widely used in common encryption protocols until around a decade ago, and is still used by Microsoft to secure Active Directory, a Windows component used by system administrators to configure user accounts.
While Windows will use AES encryption by default, the senator’s office discovered that Windows servers will still respond to RC4-based authentication requests, which potentially opens them up to «Kerberoasting.» This is a technique in which administrative privileges are gained via exploiting encryption on one affected machine in order to install ransomware on others.
In the case of Ascension, the senator claims that a contractor clicking on a malicious link led to hackers «moving laterally» within its server network, exploiting the weak encryption in order to push ransomware to thousands of other other computers in the organisation and ultimately stealing the sensitive data of 5.6 million patients.
While the senator says that his office contacted Microsoft about the vulnerability, and that the company eventually posted a blog post with actions that organisations could take to protect against it, a promised security update to fix the issue is yet to arrive.
«The Ascension hack illustrates how it is Microsoft’s customers, and, ultimately, the public, who bear the cost of Microsoft’s dangerous software engineering practices and the company’s refusal to inform its customers about the pressing need to adopt important cybersecurity safeguards», the senator continues.
«There is one company benefiting from this status quo: Microsoft itself. Instead of delivering secure software to its customers, Microsoft has built a multibillion dollar secondary business selling cybersecurity add-on services to those organizations that can afford it. At this point, Microsoft has become like an arsonist selling firefighting services to their victims»
The senator ends his letter by urging the FTC to investigate Microsoft, and hold the company responsible for what the senator claims is the «serious harm it has caused by delivering dangerous, insecure software to the U.S. government and to critical infrastructure entities, such as those in the U.S. health care sector.»
Microsoft has since released a statement to multiple outlets, including Ars Technica, directly addressing the senator’s claims:
«RC4 is an old standard, and we discourage its use both in how we engineer our software and in our documentation to customers – which is why it makes up less than .1% of our traffic. However, disabling its use completely would break many customer systems», the company said.
«For this reason, we’re on a path to gradually reduce the extent to which customers can use it, while providing strong warnings against it and advice for using it in the safest ways possible. We have it on our roadmap to ultimately disable its use. We’ve engaged with The Senator’s office on this issue and will continue to listen and answer questions from them or others in government.»
Microsoft also says that in the first quarter of 2026, «Any new installations of Active Directory Domains using Windows Server 2025 will have RC4 disabled by default, meaning any new domain will inherently be protected against attacks relying on RC4 weaknesses. We plan to include additional mitigations for existing in-market deployments with considerations for compatibility and continuity of critical customer services.»

The player admitted his guilty in showing a video of a sexual encounter with a minor to another person.
Raúl Asencio, the homegrown Real Madrid player who rose to prominence last season due to the injuries of Militao and Carvajal, has admitted his «mistake» when he showed a sex video shot without consent to a friend. As a result, one of the two women who filed a complaint against Asencio has withdrawn the charges against the player, after receiving a letter of apology with an «express acknowledgment» of the facts attributed to him and a financial compensation.
Asencio was accused and charged of showing a friend a video recorded by three of his former teammates at Real Madrid’s academy, engaging in sexual relationships with two girls, one under 18 at the time (2023). This consitutes a crime of disclosure of secrets and sharing of child pornography.
The other three defendants, Ferrán Ruiz, Juan Rodríguez y Andrés García, were at the time players from Real Madrid Castilla, their B-team, and shot the video without telling the girls, and later shared through Whatsapp groups. All three were removed from Real Madrid. Asencio did not participate in the sexual encounter, but received the video and showed it to another person on his phone (reportedly, the boyfriend at the time of one of the girls).
The other complainant, the one under age at the time, maintains the accusation against Asencio, and the Prosecutor’s Office is seeking two and a half years in prison for him for two crimes against privacy for Asencio, and four years and seven months for the other three defendents who recordad and distributed the video without consent. The trial will be held in Gran Canaria, and is yet to receive a date.

If you’re on a budget and still want quality audio, Creative has a space-saving option just for you.
Creative Stage Pro soundbar
The Creative Stage Pro soundbar is available on Amazon for $170.
This cost-effective soundbar excels at producing clear dialogue.
The Stage Pro subwoofer won’t blow you away, but it does add some depth to voices.
This space-saving soundbar/subwoofer combo from Creative might not meet the lofty demands of an audiophile, but for anyone who wants more sound from their movies or television, it ticks a lot of boxes.
Selling for $170 on Amazon, the Stage Pro is a midrange soundbar that does one particular thing very well: ensure you can hear every word of dialogue spoken, an issue that frustrates some to the point of watching with subtitles on. Thanks to this soundbar, though, you won’t have to do that any longer.
Let’s chat about what this soundbar can do. Creative Stage Pro soundbar.
This soundbar from Creative is a game-changer for anyone who struggles to hear dialogue.
75-inch TCL QM6K 4K QD-Mini LED Google TV (2025 Model):
$850 (save $150)
85-inch Samsung Q60D Series 4K QLED Smart TV (2024 Model):
$1,200 (save $498)
65-inch LG C4 Series 4K 120Hz OLED Evo Smart TV (2024 Model):
$1,297 (save $1,403)
65-inch Samsung S90D Series 4K OLED 144Hz Smart TV (2024 Model):
$1,298 (save $400)
75-inch Sony Bravia XR X90L 4K Full Array LED Smart TV (2023 Model):
$1,198 (save $602)My experience
First off, the bar has been set very high for soundbars in my house, thanks to the JBL Bar 1000. That soundbar produces amazingly accurate and rich sound, and I’ve yet to come across one to best it. Of course, the Bar 1000 sells for $1200 on Amazon, which is beyond the budget of many.
Thankfully, there are plenty of low- to midrange soundbars to choose from, and although the Stage Pro lives in the upper low-end spectrum of devices, it sounds much better than its price would imply.
As soon as I received the Stage Pro, my immediate thought was, «This is small.» Because of the «Pro» name, I assumed it would at least be close to the size of the Bar 1000. Alas, the length of the sound bar is a mere 21 inches long. You might think that would preclude it from producing enough volume to be usable, but that you’d be wrong.
I connected the Stage Pro to my TV via HDMI/eARC port, connected the subwoofer (via the attached cable), and plugged both the soundbar and subwoofer into a power outlet. I then opened Netflix. I’m currently re-binging «Travelers», so I pressed play and sat back to see how this tiny speaker did.
Left: the JBL Bar 1000; Right: the Stage Pro subwoofer.
Needless to say, I was impressed. Now, let me be specific.
What immediately impressed me was the dialogue, which was very crisp, clear, and loud enough. Kudos to Creative, because we all know how much of an issue dialogue in modern movies and TV can be. The Stage Pro delivered every word spoken so clearly you might think the characters were standing in the room speaking directly at you.
What a breath of fresh air.
On top of the clear dialogue, the setup and usage were incredibly easy. In fact, I would say that this was the easiest soundbar I’ve ever connected to a TV. Plug it in, turn everything on, and you’re good to go.
The Stage Pro remote is very easy to use, but doesn’t include AAA batteries.
On the remote, you’ll find a button labeled «Super Wide», allowing you to switch between far and near fields, meaning you can switch between distances from the source. If you’re watching in a small room, use the near field option. If you’re in a larger room with plenty of space between you and the source, select the far field option. Believe it or not, it does make a difference in the clarity of the sound based on your watching position.
There’s also the Mode button, which allows you to select from movie, TV, audio, and gaming. I recommend you use this feature, as it also makes a difference in the sound.
As far as the bass is concerned, it’s not booming, but it certainly does bring out the low end of what you’re watching. This subwoofer is nowhere near the quality of the Bar 1000, but at $170, I wouldn’t expect it to be. That being said, the sub did impress me, especially for TV.
With the sub cranked up (you can increase bass and treble on the remote), it gave much more depth to the voices. I’ve tested other soundbars that either don’t include a subwoofer or don’t use it properly, which equates to hollow-sounding dialogue (a pet peeve of mine). The Stage Pro avoids that pitfall and delivers rich dialogue and a bit of low-end «thump» when needed.ZDNET’s buying advice
Do I recommend the Creative Stage Pro soundbar? It depends on what you’re looking for. If you’re in the market for a soundbar that produces sonic booms on the low end, crisp highs, and a massively wide soundstage, the Stage Pro isn’t for you.
If, on the other hand, you want a cost-effective soundbar that puts dialogue front and center and elevates it with a bit of rich bass, this soundbar is right up your alley. The Creative Stage Pro is an inexpensive soundbar that will make you think you’re listening to one twice the cost. Because it’s so easy to set up, anyone can enjoy this baby within minutes of unboxing.Creative Stage Pro 2.1 soundbar tech specs
Frequency response — 50–20,000 Hz
Signal-to-Noise Ratio — > 85 dB
Power Output — 2 x 20Wrms (L/R), 1 x 40Wrms (Sub) (Total 80Wrms, 160Wpeak)
Connectivity — HDMI 2.0, Bluetooth 5.3, USB Audio, and optical.
Dimensions — Sub: 4.53 × 10.43 × 16.54 inches, Soundbar 21.65 × 4.41 × 3.18 inches