Our picksIS’ Improvised Weapons | Kaspersky Diversifies | Smart Devices Vulnerable

White House Opted Not to Buy Millions of Additional Doses of Pfizer Vaccine (The Telegraph)
The Trump administration opted last summer not to buy millions of additional doses of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine, a decision that could delay the delivery of a second batch of doses until the American manufacturer has fulfilled its orders to other countries.
The revelation, reported by the Associated Press on Monday, came a day before President Trump will aim to take credit for the speedy development of forthcoming coronavirus vaccines at a White House summit on Tuesday.
Pfizer’s vaccine is expected to be approved by a panel of Food and Drug Administration scientists as soon as this week, with delivery of 100 million doses – enough for 50 million Americans – expected in coming months.

Oxford-Astrazeneca Covid Vaccine Shows Sign of Giving Herd Immunity (Tom Whipple, The Times)
The Oxford vaccine may stop asymptomatic infection in a crucial sign that it could provide herd immunity.

The team behind the drug today became the first to provide preliminary evidence that theirs did more than just stop illness.
But in a further dilemma for regulators, the strongest effect seems to come from the “half dose” regimen that was discovered by chance.
Scientists said the findings, published in The Lancet today, could further complicate the decision about which strategy to use, as the group given this apparently more effective dosing regimen was also smaller and did not include older adults.

Suspected Chinese Spy Targeted California Politicians (Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian and Zach Dorfman, Axios)
A suspected Chinese intelligence operative developed extensive ties with local and national politicians, including a U.S. congressman, in what U.S. officials believe was a political intelligence operation run by China’s main civilian spy agency between 2011 and 2015, Axios found in a yearlong investigation.
The alleged operation offers a rare window into how Beijing has tried to gain access to and influence U.S. political circles.

Christchurch Inquiry Says New Zealand Couldn’t Have Prevented Mosque Attacks (Charlotte Graham-McLay, New York Times)
But the Royal Commission, the country’s highest-level investigation, faulted lax gun regulations and the country’s “fragile” intelligence agencies.

Islamic State in ‘Nazi doodlebug’ Bomb Plot: Jihadi Used British Company as Cover to Buy Parts for Flying Explosives, Report Reveals (Larisa Brown, Daily Mail)
An Islamic State jihadi used a British company as a front to buy parts for Nazi-style ‘doodlebug’ flying bombs, it can be revealed.
An 18-month investigation has uncovered an international Islamic State procurement network which exploited lax rules in the UK to set up fake companies and buy weapons from abroad.
Cardiff-based businessman Siful Haque Sujan was among those who set up fake companies, a report by Conflict Armament Research (CAR) revealed.

Manchester Arena Attack: Jailed Terrorist Hashem Abedi Has Admitted Involvement in Planning Bombing, Inquiry Told (Sky News)
The terror attack at an Ariana Grande concert killed 22 people and injured hundreds more on 22 May 2017. Abedi, 23, made the admission in prison in October while he was visited by two members of the inquiry’s legal team.

Kaspersky Diversifies from Cybersecurity after Spying Allegations (Helen Warrell, Financial Times)
Russian antivirus company to launch anti-drone and election security systems after US and UK bans

Research: Millions of Smart Devices Vulnerable to Hacking (Frank Bajak, AP / TechExplore)
Researchers at a cybersecurity firm say they have identified vulnerabilities in software widely used by millions of connected devices—flaws that could be exploited by hackers to penetrate business and home computer networks and disrupt them. There is no evidence of any intrusions that made use of these vulnerabilities. But their existence in data-communications software central to internet-connected devices prompted the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to flag the issue in an advisory.