US Senator Wyden pushes FTC to investigate Microsoft for 'gross cybersecurity negligence'

(Reuters) -U.S. Democratic Senator Ron Wyden on Wednesday requested the Federal Trade Commission “investigate and hold Microsoft responsible” for its role in a string of high-profile cybersecurity incidents in recent years, saying the company’s approach to security “continues to threaten U.S. national security.” Wyden wrote in a September 10 letter to FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson that the tech giant’s “gross cybersecurity negligence” has resulted in ransomware attacks against critical infrastructure, including U.S. health care organizations at least in part due to default configurations in the Windows operating system. “At this point, Microsoft has become like an arsonist selling firefighting services to their victims,” Wyden wrote, and government agencies and other companies have “no choice” but to use the company’s products due to its “near-monopoly over enterprise IT.”