More than 30 WordPress plugins in the EssentialPlugin package have been compromised with malicious code that allows unauthorized access to websites running them.

A malicious actor planted the backdoor code last year but only recently started pushing it to users via updates, generating spam pages and causing redirects, as per the instructions received from the command-and-control (C2) server.

The compromise affects plugins with hundreds of thousands of active installations and was spotted by Austin Ginder, the founder of managed WordPress hosting provider Anchor Hosting, after receiving a tip about one add-on containing code that allowed third-party access.

Further investigation by Ginder revealed that a backdoor had been present in all plugins within the EssentialPlugin package since August 2025, after the project was acquired in a six-figure deal by a new owner.

EssentialPlugin, established in 2015 as WP Online Support and rebranded in 2021, is a WordPress development firm offering sliders, galleries, marketing tools, WooCommerce extensions, SEO/analytics utilities, and themes.

According to Ginder, the backdoor sat inactive until it was recently activated and silently contacted external infrastructure to fetch a file (‘wp-comments-posts.php’) that injects malware into ‘wp-config.php.’

The downloaded malware is invisible to site owners and uses Ethereum-based C2 address resolution for evasion. Depending on the received instructions, the malware can retrieve “spam links, redirects, and fake pages”.

“The injected code was sophisticated. It fetched spam links, redirects, and fake pages from a command-and-control server. It only showed the spam to Googlebot, making it invisible to site owners,” explained Ginder.

Analysis from WordPress security platform PatchStack shows that the backdoor worked only if the ‘analytics.essentialplugin.com’ endpoint returned with a malicious serialized content.

WordPress action and infection status

WordPress.org responded quickly to the reports of the malicious activity by closing the plugins and pushing a forced update to websites to neutralize the backdoor’s communication and disable its execution path.

However, the developers warned that the action did not clean the wp-config core configuration file, which connects websites to their databases and includes important settings.

The WordPress.org Plugins Team also cautioned administrators with websites running an EssentialPlugin product that while one known location for the backdoor is a file named wp-comments-posts.php, which resembles the legitimate wp-comments-post.php, the malware may also hide in other files.

BleepingComputer has contacted EssentialPlugins for a comment on the reported malicious commit that occurred after the acquisition, but we have not received a response by publishing time.

Automated pentesting proves the path exists. BAS proves whether your controls stop it. Most teams run one without the other.

This whitepaper maps six validation surfaces, shows where coverage ends, and provides practitioners with three diagnostic questions for any tool evaluation.

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YouTube Premium got harder to justify after its recent price hikes, and YouTube Music Premium also followed soon after. But Google now has a new way to make the bill sting a little less.

The Gemini team just announced a bundle deal that lets users get 50% off YouTube Premium for a whole year. But while this sounds solid on paper, this is not a no-strings-attached promo deal.

How do you avail this half-off deal?

YouTube Premium still gives you the usual core benefits like ad-free videos, background play, offline downloads, and ad-free YouTube Music. Cutting that price in half for 12 months makes the subscription a lot easier to stomach.

But there is a catch, because of course there is. This is not a broad YouTube Premium discount for everyone. It is tied to Google AI Pro, which sits inside the broader Google One subscription setup. Google’s support page says the YouTube Premium add-on is currently available only to eligible members, and some users may not be able to sign up at all. The company also says the 12-month Google AI Pro trial membership is not eligible for the YouTube add-on bundle.

Why this offer is a Google lock-in perk

While it may not outright say it, the brand is clearly not just discounting YouTube Premium out of generosity. Just a while back, the company bumped the cloud storage capacity from 2TB to 5TB for Google AI Pro subscribers. So the YouTube Premium deal is just another add-on to make Google AI Pro’s value seem sweeter. The Gemini X post frames it as a “special surprise” for power users, while Google’s own pages position it as part of the bigger Google AI Pro experience.

The company has even tied this benefit to the individual YouTube Premium plan, which is not shareable with family members. Aside from this, the deal is only available in select countries like the US, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Japan, and France. So yes, after the price hike, YouTube Premium is now effectively half the price if you pay for Google One through Google AI Pro. But this is less a straightforward discount and more Google’s latest reminder that the cheapest way to use one of its services increasingly involves subscribing to two.

Microsoft is investigating an issue causing this month’s KB5082063 security update to fail to install on some Windows Server 2025 systems.

On affected systems, users are also reporting seeing 0x800F0983 install errors when trying to deploy the April 2026 cumulative updates.

“Microsoft is monitoring diagnostic data reports on update installation failures and has observed a recurring error on Windows Server 2025 devices when installing the April 2026 Windows security update (the Originating KBs listed above), released on April 14, 2026,” the company says in a service alert spotted by Microsoft MVP Susan Bradley.

“A limited number of affected servers might experience an installation failure accompanied by the error code 800F0983.”

Microsoft says it’s currently looking into this known issue and will share more details as it learns more about the root cause.

​On Wednesday, Microsoft also warned IT administrators that some Windows Server 2025 devices will boot into BitLocker recovery after deploying the KB5082063 Windows security update, prompting users to enter a BitLocker key.

However, as the company further explained, this is unlikely to affect home users, as affected configurations are typically found on systems managed by enterprise teams.

This week, Microsoft also finally addressed a bug that has been plaguing Windows servers for 1.5 years, causing systems running Windows Server 2019 and 2022 to upgrade to Windows Server 2025 “unexpectedly.”

While it initially blamed the issue on misconfigured third-party update management software, Microsoft said it had addressed the issue and that customers can once again check for updates through the Windows Settings app.

Since the start of the year, it has also released several emergency updates to resolve security vulnerabilities in the Routing and Remote Access Service (RRAS) management tool, a Bluetooth device visibility bug, broken sign-ins with Microsoft accounts, and update installation issues affecting the March 2026 non-security preview update.

Automated pentesting proves the path exists. BAS proves whether your controls stop it. Most teams run one without the other.

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Oppo is gearing up to expand its flagship range with new models soon. It looks like the Oppo Find X9 Ultra will launch alongside the Find X9s. Along with these phones, the company may also introduce other products, such as the Oppo Watch X3 and Enco Clip 2, at the same event.

Rumored Specifications of Oppo Find X9 Ultra

The Oppo Find X9s is expected to feature a flat display design, which many users prefer for everyday use. The bezels are quite slim at 1.15mm, adding to its premium look. On the front, a hole-punch cutout will house the selfie camera. Moreover, the phone stands out for its button placement: the power and volume buttons are on the left, while another button is on the right.

For photography, Oppo is adding a Hasselblad-tuned triple camera system to the Find X9s. It will feature a 50MP main camera designed to capture clear and sharp images. The camera setup sits inside a square module, and an LED flash is also included.

Another important feature of the phone is its battery, which comes with an impressive capacity of 7,025 mAh. The device will easily handle any task thanks to its powerful battery, whether it’s gaming or video streaming. However, details about the phone’s chipset and performance features remain unknown.

What to Expect from the Find X9s Pro

As of now, it appears the Oppo Find X9s Pro will be released only in China. Among other things, the smartphone will reportedly feature a quadruple-camera module with two 200MP lenses. In addition, it could integrate Oppo’s LUMO image-sensing tech to deliver high-quality shots. As for the display panel, it is expected to be 6.3 inches.

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Live Nation, which operates the Ticketmaster platform, has been determined to be a monopoly. A federal jury handed down its decision today that the company violated federal and state antitrust rules. This finding won’t surprise anyone who has used Ticketmaster and been sticker-shocked by their final bill. However, it’s unclear what the jury’s decision will mean in practice.

For starters, the judge overseeing the case hasn’t determined what remedies will be applied. The actions could go as far as requiring Live Nation to sell off Ticketmaster. There are also monetary damages to be awarded, which haven’t been set yet. And whatever the judge decides, it’s likely that Live Nation will appeal the decision. In a statement released by Live Nation today, the company noted that there are other motions still pending that could also impact the jury’s ruling. “Of course, Live Nation can and will appeal any unfavorable rulings on these motions,” it said.

The Department of Justice and a group of state and district attorneys general sued Live Nation on monopoly claims in 2024. The government agency reached a settlement with Live Nation last month, but the other parties continued their action. There’s also a separate case being waged by the Federal Trade Commission questioning whether Live Nation colluded with ticket resellers.

Update, April 15, 2025, 6:31PM ET: Added statement from Live Nation.

Musical Fidelity has introduced the M6xi integrated amplifier, a $3,799 USD model that builds on the proven analog circuit design of its award winning “si” series while adding expanded digital inputs and stronger system integration. The launch comes as the brand gains renewed momentum under Pro-Ject Audio Systems ownership, alongside a more stable and focused U.S. distribution strategy through Harmonia Distribution, signaling a more aggressive push into the competitive integrated amplifier category.

Industrial Design & Chassis Construction

The M6xi is built around a rigid aluminum chassis, with the front, side, and top panels machined from extruded profiles. This all metal enclosure is engineered to reduce electromagnetic interference while providing a solid, well damped structure. The result is a clean, durable exterior that also supports consistent electrical performance.

Preamplifier Stage & Connectivity

The M6xi’s preamplifier stage is designed for low noise and stable performance across a wide range of listening levels. It employs a Burr Brown stepped attenuator to ensure precise channel matching and accurate volume control. Connectivity includes a pre-out for bi-amping or subwoofer integration, along with a phono input that supports both MM and MC cartridges.

Amplifier Stage & Power Delivery

The M6xi’s amplifier section is based on Musical Fidelity’s TITAN platform, first introduced in 2008, and delivers a slight increase in power (10 more watts) over the previous M6si. It is rated at 230 watts per channel into 8 ohms and 390 watts per channel into 4 ohms, providing the current and headroom needed for a wide range of loudspeakers.

A low distortion Darlington output stage is employed to reduce crossover artifacts and residual distortion, while an optimized PCB layout helps maintain channel balance and stability. The use of dedicated analog power supplies further limits high frequency noise and electromagnetic interference, supporting cleaner overall performance.

Connectivity 

The M6xi provides a host of connections, including 

• Optical, Coaxial, and HDMI-ARC inputs
• USB-C input
• 4 sets of RCA unbalanced  stereo Analog inputs 
• One set of Analog XLR Balanced stereo inputs
• One Line  output 
• One Pre-Amp Output
• Left and Right channel speaker terminals
• 5 V, 2 A USB-A power output for external streamers
• 12 volt Trigger
• RS232 connector for custom integration control

Another practical connection option is a home theater bypass input, allowing the M6xi to function as a dedicated two channel power amplifier within a multichannel system.

“We are delighted that Musical Fidelity has introduced the new M6xi, adding important, listener friendly features without detracting from the performance the M6si was known for,” says Jeff Coates, Musical Fidelity Brand Lead and Director of Sales at Harmonia Distribution. “We look forward to listeners experiencing it in person.”

The Bottom Line

Musical Fidelity knows exactly what it is doing here. The M6xi doubles down on traditional two channel design with serious power, a refined analog foundation, and just enough modern flexibility to make system building easier. The inclusion of a proper MM and MC phono stage, pre-out, and home theater bypass makes it more adaptable than it first appears, even without built-in streaming.

What is missing is just as clear. There is no Bluetooth, no Wi-Fi, and no onboard streaming platform. In a category where many competitors are racing to become all in one hubs, the M6xi stays firmly in the physical source camp. That is either a limitation or the entire point, depending on how you listen.

There are also gaps. Full specifications are not yet available, and without official documentation or extended listening, it is too early to draw firm conclusions about how it stacks up against rivals in this price range. That matters when you are asking close to $4,000.

The M6xi is aimed at listeners who already have a source chain they trust and do not want an amplifier cluttered with features they will never use. If your system revolves around vinyl, CD, or a dedicated external streamer, and you want power, control, and a more traditional approach, this is exactly the kind of amplifier that makes sense.

Price & Availability

The Musical Fidelity M6xi Integrated Amplifier is priced at $3,799 and is available through Authorized Dealers

Related Reading:

In short: Anthropic has received investor offers valuing the company at approximately $800 billion, more than doubling its $380 billion valuation from a $30 billion funding round closed just two months ago. The surge follows an unprecedented revenue trajectory that has taken Anthropic from $1 billion in annualised revenue at the end of 2024 to $30 billion by early April 2026, alongside the release of its Claude Mythos model through Project Glasswing.

Anthropic has received investor offers valuing the company at approximately $800 billion, according to Bloomberg, a figure that would more than double the $380 billion valuation at which it closed a $30 billion funding round just two months ago. The company has so far resisted accepting the offers.

The number is remarkable even by the standards of a sector that has redefined what growth looks like. If Anthropic were to raise at $800 billion, it would rank among the most valuable private companies in history and place the Claude developer in direct valuation competition with OpenAI. It would also mean that a company founded in 2021 had reached a valuation that took Salesforce two decades and Microsoft three to achieve.

The revenue behind the number

What makes the $800 billion figure less absurd than it sounds is Anthropic’s revenue trajectory. The company ended 2024 at roughly $1 billion in annualised revenue. By the end of 2025, that had reached $9 billion. By February 2026, it was $14 billion. By March, $19 to $20 billion. In early April, Anthropic crossed $30 billion in annualised revenue, a figure that represents approximately 1,400% year-over-year growth.

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Axios described it bluntly: no company in American history has ever grown like this. Claude Code alone hit $2.5 billion in annualised revenue in February, more than doubling since the start of the year. The growth is being driven by enterprise adoption, with Anthropic’s Claude models now embedded in workflows across finance, legal, healthcare, and software development.

At $30 billion in annualised revenue and growing, an $800 billion valuation implies a roughly 27x revenue multiple. That is high by any conventional measure, but it is not obviously irrational for a company whose revenue is doubling every few months. The question is how long that trajectory can hold.

The funding escalator

Anthropic’s valuation history reads like a parabolic curve. In March 2025, the company raised $3.5 billion at a $61.5 billion valuation. By its Series F in September 2025, the implied valuation had reached $183 billion. In February 2026, it closed a $30 billion round, the second-largest venture funding deal ever, at $380 billion. Now, just weeks later, investors are offering nearly $800 billion.

The existing investors are sitting on extraordinary gains. Google owns 14% of Anthropic, a stake acquired through multiple investments totalling roughly $3 billion, and has reported $10.7 billion in net gains on those equity securities. Amazon, which has invested an estimated $8 billion and secured a position as Anthropic’s primary cloud and training partner, reported a $9.5 billion pretax gain tied to Anthropic’s rising valuation in its Q3 results. Both companies hold stakes that are now worth multiples of their original investments.

The company is also in early talks with Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley about a potential IPO that could come as early as October 2026, with an expected raise exceeding $60 billion. An $800 billion pre-IPO valuation would set the stage for what would be one of the largest public offerings in technology history.

What changed

Two things have shifted Anthropic’s position since February. The first is the revenue acceleration itself, which has exceeded even bullish projections. The second is Claude Mythos, the model Anthropic unveiled on 7 April through its Project Glasswing initiative.

Mythos Preview autonomously discovered thousands of zero-day vulnerabilities across every major operating system and web browser, including a 27-year-old OpenBSD bug and a 17-year-old FreeBSD remote code execution flaw. It succeeded on 73% of expert-level capture-the-flag cybersecurity tasks and was the first model to solve a 32-step simulated corporate network attack end-to-end. Anthropic made the model available only to 11 organisations, including Apple, Google, Microsoft, and AWS, under a $100 million defensive initiative.

The decision not to release Mythos publicly was itself a statement. It signalled that Anthropic possesses capabilities it considers too powerful for broad access, a claim that, whether justified or not, functions as a credibility marker for investors evaluating the company’s technical position relative to OpenAI and Google DeepMind.

The valuation question

An $800 billion valuation places Anthropic in territory where the usual venture capital frameworks break down. At this scale, investors are not pricing a startup; they are pricing a potential platform company, one that could become as foundational to the economy as cloud computing or mobile operating systems.

The bull case is straightforward: Anthropic’s revenue is growing faster than any company in history, its models are competitive with or ahead of OpenAI’s on multiple benchmarks, and enterprise demand for AI capabilities shows no sign of slowing. If Claude becomes the default AI layer for a significant portion of global knowledge work, the revenue ceiling is measured in hundreds of billions, not tens.

The bear case is equally clear. Revenue multiples of 27x assume sustained hypergrowth, and no company has maintained growth rates of this magnitude for more than a few quarters. The AI market is intensely competitive, with OpenAI, Google, Meta, and a growing roster of open-source alternatives all fighting for the same enterprise budgets. Anthropic’s costs are enormous: training frontier models, building infrastructure at scale, and competing for talent against companies with deeper pockets. The path from $30 billion in revenue to profitability at a level that justifies $800 billion in enterprise value is not guaranteed.

There is also the broader question of whether AI valuations have detached from fundamentals in ways that will eventually correct. The sector has absorbed hundreds of billions in investment on the premise that AI will restructure the global economy. If adoption curves flatten, or if commoditisation drives margins down faster than revenue grows, the companies that raised at peak valuations will face the most painful adjustments.

For now, though, the money keeps flowing. Anthropic has not accepted the $800 billion offers, which suggests either that it believes the price will go higher, or that it is holding out for terms that give it more control over its cap table ahead of a potential IPO. Either way, the fact that multiple investors are willing to write cheques at this valuation tells you everything about where the market thinks AI is heading, and how much it is willing to bet on that conviction.