Microsoft Will Finally Kill an Encryption Cipher That Enabled a Decade of Windows Hacks

Microsoft is killing off an obsolete and vulnerable encryption cipher that Windows has supported by default for 26 years. This follows more than a decade of devastating hacks that exploited it and recent blistering criticism from a prominent US senator.

When the software maker rolled out Active Directory in 2000, it made RC4 a sole means of securing the Windows component, which administrators use to configure and provision fellow administrator and user accounts inside large organizations. RC4, short for…