Our picksPneumonia Deaths Now 10 Times Higher than Covid | Have We Reached Peak Ransomware? | SolarWinds Hack Could Have Been Deterred, and more

Flu and Pneumonia Deaths Now 10 Times Higher than Covid  (Sarah Knapton, The Telegraph)
New ONS data reveals that Covid deaths now make up just 0.8 per cent of all fatalities, down from 1.3 per cent

Have We Reached Peak Ransomware? How the Internet’s Biggest Security Problem Has Grown and What Happens Next  (Danny Palmer, ZDNet)
A string of high-profile cyberattacks has made ransomware an impossible issue to ignore - in fact, even world leaders are talking about it. Will this be enough to make cyber criminals think twice?

Trump Election Pressure Caused Senior Justice Official to Weigh Resigning  (Aruna Viswanatha, Wall Street Journal)
John Demers led the Justice Department’s national security division as it focused on threats of Chinese espionage and influence. He  said the sole time in his three-year tenure he considered resigning came when the agency fell under pressure from then-President Donald Trump to pursue baseless claims of election fraud.

The Inanity of Trump’s Campaign to Overturn the Election  (Virginia Heffernan, The Atlantic)
Recently released emails reveal a helter-skelter pressure campaign on the Justice Department.

Leaked Chats Show Ex-Marine Wants to Make Maine Safe Space for Neo-Nazis  (Ben Makuch, Vice)
According to the transcripts, provided by the Counter Extremism Project, Pohlhaus (who says he lives in Texas) and his followers see Maine as a perfect spot: already one of the whitest places in America, with favorable gun laws allowing them to arm up and prepare for the collapse of society. Inside a private chat room on Telegram—an app combining a secure messaging function and a publishing capability that allows it to work as a sort of Twitter knockoff, and is popular among the far-right—Pohlhaus and several others (under aliases) have discussed the merits of moving to one of America’s remotest states, and singled out specific areas of Maine for future settlement.

For the First Time, Canada Applies Terrorism Charges to Acts of Islamophobia  (Anita Elash, PRI)
Canadian man Nathaniel Veltman has been charged with murder in the case of the Azfaal family in London, Ontario. Veltman deliberately rammed his truck into them when they were out for a stroll in early June in what police called a premeditated attack. Four people were killed and a nine-year-old boy was injured.  Now, for the first time in Canada, prosecutors say they plan to charge a person with terrorism in a case that involves an alleged Islamophobic act. Some legal experts say that adding the terrorism charge signals a shift in how Canada prosecutes those accused of terrorist activity. Canadian Muslims welcomed the news that Veltman would be charge with terrorism. “It says to the Muslim community, we value the Muslim community and we will push for accountability,” said Nawaz Tahir, a spokesperson for the London mosque. Terrorism has been a criminal offense in Canada since the 9/11 attacks on the United States. The law has been used almost exclusively to prosecute people with ties to Islamist groups. Tahir said that’s left many Muslims feeling frustrated. “The frustration is, well, when Canadian Muslims are being killed and it appears to be an act of terror, why haven’t terrorism charges been used?” he said.

Cyber Agency Says SolarWinds Hack Could Have Been Deterred by Simple Security Measures  (Maggie Miller, The Hill)
The SolarWinds hack, one of the largest cybersecurity incidents in U.S. history, may have been deterred or minimized if basic security measures had been put in place, a top government official acknowledged earlier this month.
In a June 3 letter to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) provided to The Hill on Monday, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) acting Director Brandon Wales agreed with Wyden’s question over whether firewalls placed in victim agency systems could have helped block the malware virus used in the SolarWinds attack. 
“CISA agrees that a firewall blocking all outgoing connections to the internet would have neutralized the malware,” Wales wrote.

Immigration and the Aging Society  (Steven A. Camarota, National Affairs)
The idea that immigration is the solution to the aging of American society has become an article of faith among those arguing for ever-higher levels of new arrivals. It’s not a crazy argument; it just happens to be incorrect. In reality, the impact immigrants can have on population aging is small. Immigration certainly makes our population larger, but not younger.

World Climate and Security Report Reveals Strain on Military and Security Services  (Lindsey Wilkinson, HSToday)
A new report from the International Military Council on Climate and Security (IMCCS) reveals that the increasing pace and intensity of climate hazards will strain military and security services around the world as they are called on to respond to climate-driven crises, as well as tackling direct climate threats to their own infrastructure and readiness.