The Federal Trade Commission said Thursday it is suing to block Microsoft’s planned $69 billion takeover of video game company Activision Blizzard, saying it could suppress competitors to its Xbox game consoles and its growing games subscription business.

The FTC voted 3-1 to issue the complaint after a closed-door meeting, with the three Democratic commissioners voting in favor and the sole Republican voting against. A fifth seat on the panel is vacant after another Republican left earlier this year.

The FTC’s complaint points to Microsoft’s previous game acquisitions, especially of well-known developer Bethesda Softworks and its parent company ZeniMax, as an example of where Microsoft made some popular game titles exclusive despite assuring European regulators it had no intention to do so.

“Microsoft has already shown that it can and will withhold content from its gaming rivals,” said a prepared statement from Holly Vedova, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition. “Today we seek to stop Microsoft from gaining control over a leading independent game studio and using it to harm competition in multiple dynamic and fast-growing gaming markets.”

Microsoft’s president, Brad Smith, suggested in a statement Thursday that the company is likely to challenge the FTC’s decision.

“While we believed in giving peace a chance, we have complete confidence in our case and welcome the opportunity to present our case in court,” Smith said.

The FTC’s challenge -- which is being filed in an administrative court -- could be a test case for President Joe Biden’s mandate to scrutinize big tech mergers.

Microsoft had been ramping up its public defense of the deal in recent days as it awaited a decision.

Microsoft announced the merger deal in January but has faced months of resistance from Sony, which makes the competing PlayStation console and has raised concerns with antitrust watchdogs around the world about losing access to popular Activision Blizzard game franchises such as Call of Duty.

Antitrust regulators under Biden “have staked out the view that for decades merger policy has been too weak and they’ve said, repeatedly, ‘We’re changing that,’” said William Kovacic, a former chair of the FTC.

The goal is to “not allow dodgy deals and not accept weak settlements,” said Kovacic, who was a Republican commissioner appointed in 2006 by then-President George W. Bush. But he said trying to block this acquisition could trigger a legal challenge from Microsoft that the company has a good chance of winning,

“It’s evident that the company has been making a number of concessions,” he said. “If the FTC turns down Microsoft’s commitments, Microsoft would likely raise them in court and say the FTC is being incorrigibly stubborn about this.”

Microsoft announced its latest promise Wednesday, saying it would make Call of Duty available on Nintendo devices for 10 years should its acquisition go through. It has said it tried to offer the same commitment to Sony.

The deal is also under close scrutiny in the European Union and the United Kingdom, where investigations aren’t due to be completed until next year.

Suspected Iranian hackers have targeted dozens of defense technology and maritime transportation firms, successfully breaching a small number, in a spying campaign launched since July that could leave some of the companies vulnerable to follow-on hacking attempts, Microsoft announced Monday.

Among the targets were companies that work with the U.S., European Union and Israeli governments to make satellite systems, drones technology and "military-grade radars," Microsoft said.

It's just the latest effort by an alleged Iranian hacking group to access sensitive data held in the maritime sector. Another Iranian group last year stole information on the military unit of U.S. Navy members, according to IBM.

"Gaining access to commercial satellite imagery and proprietary shipping plans and logs could help Iran compensate for its developing satellite program," Microsoft researchers wrote in a blog post on Monday.

Microsoft did not attribute the activity directly to an Iranian government organization but instead said the hacking "supports the national interests" of Iran based on a number of factors, including hacking techniques associated with another Iranian group.

John Lambert, head of Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center, told CNN that Microsoft discovered the hacking activity when responding to a breach of a U.S. financial services firm this summer.

The goal of releasing information on the intrusions now is to help organizations prepare for follow-on breach attempts, Lambert said. The hackers, he added, could look to use stolen login information to break into the internal networks of targeted organizations.

The suspected Iranian operatives tried guessing passwords at roughly 250 organizations, including unnamed U.S. and Israeli defense firms and organizations operating in Persian Gulf ports, according to Microsoft. The hackers managed to breach "less than 20" of those organizations, the tech firm said.

The maritime sector has long been of interest to Iran's intelligence services and the country sits on the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world's oil shipments pass.

"Given Iran's past cyber and military attacks against shipping and maritime targets, Microsoft believes this activity increases the risk to companies in these sectors," the Washington State-based technology provider said.

While this activity appears concentrated on Persian Gulf ports, U.S. maritime authorities have also had to raise their network defenses in response to threats.

Unidentified hackers in August breached a computer network at the Port of Houston, U.S. officials have said. Early detection of the incident meant the intruders weren't in a position to disrupt shipping operations, according to a Coast Guard analysis of the incident obtained by CNN.

"The shipping lanes are the highways of the sea," Lambert said. "And anything related to that is going to be in the crosshairs and subject to geopolitical dynamics."

Microsoft now says suspected Russian hackers behind a massive campaign that impacted government agencies, local municipalities and companies were also able to view some of the company’s source code.

In a blog post Thursday, Microsoft says the unauthorized access “has not put at risk the security of our services or any customer data.”

"We detected unusual activity with a small number of internal accounts and upon review, we discovered one account had been used to view source code in a number of source code repositories," Microsoft stated. "The account did not have permissions to modify any code or engineering systems and our investigation further confirmed no changes were made. These accounts were investigated and remediated."

Source code is the basic building blocks of computer programs, like the instructions.

Last month, as news of the hacking campaign surfaced, Microsoft acknowledged using the IT management software SolarWinds Orion, which is how the attackers gained access to thousands of government, public, and private organizations.

Microsoft has said in earlier blog posts they were aware of clients they serviced who were compromised, Thursday’s update is the first time the company has confirmed the attackers compromised them.

Microsoft says they operate with a philosophy of making source code viewable, and do not rely on secrecy of this code for security. “So viewing source code isn’t tied to elevation of risk,” they stated.

Veterans who wish to continue serving have a new mission in front of them. The war on COVID-19.

The "Veterans Coalition for Vaccination" is using technology to help in the fight.

After Hurricane Delta hit Louisiana in the fall of 2020, Team Rubicon was there to help and rebuild.

“Team Rubicon is a disaster nonprofit that mobilizes military veterans to use their skills, experience, and education to help communities prepare, respond and recover from natural disasters," explained Art delaCruz, President and Chief Operating Officer of Team Rubicon.

Just like it is in the military, there's teamwork, a mission, and a goal.

“Military veterans bring immense experience and comfort in ambiguous environments that can help people that have been impacted by natural disasters," delaCruz said.

Formed by a former Marine sniper, Team Rubicon began with a small team of 8. There are now 140,000 volunteers who come together for a cause.

“It's another opportunity to continue to serve," delaCruz said.

Now, they have a new job.

“Veterans from across the country are coming together to aid in converting vaccines into vaccinations. Vaccines don’t save lives, vaccinations do," delaCruz said.

To say that mobilizing takes a huge amount of coordination would be an understatement. These days, that coordination comes through technology.

Justin Spelhaug is the Vice President of Technology for social impact at Microsoft, and he's a veteran who helps organizations like Team Rubicon run their operations with "Cloud for Nonprofit."

“Brings the best of our trusted cloud capabilities to solve the most challenging processes and pain points that nonprofits have," explained Spelhaug.

Things like fundraising, how to deploy volunteers, when and where and how to run programs. All of that, in one place. When it comes to something like Team Rubicon's Veterans Coalition for Vaccination, technology can streamline a big job.

“Ultimately these are really, typically, chaotic events, and the volunteer system helps provide order to what can be a chaotic event and help those health care workers get to the shots in the arms,” Spelhaug said.

He added they're using that tech to help mobilize in the most underserved of America's communities.

For Team Rubicon, it's all about supporting the health care system.

“We understood that our veterans could have impact it's not necessarily in putting needles in arms, it’s making sure we can facilitate this process so when doctors and nurses show up, that we’re vaccinating as many people as possible in a short amount of time," delaCruz said.

They've already started working in a handful of communities across the country and they're standing by, ready to deploy, when called.