Our picksChina’s Old Habits Delayed Epidemic Fight | Voter, You’ve Been Hacked | Codebreaker’s Papers, and more

As New Coronavirus Spread, China’s Old Habits Delayed Fight (Chris Buckley and Steven Lee Myers, New York Times)

At critical turning points, Chinese authorities put secrecy and order ahead of openly confronting the growing crisis and risking public alarm or political embarrassment.

The Wuhan Virus Is Not a Lab-Made Bioweapon (Justin Ling, Foreign Policy)
Conspiracy theories are spreading faster than the coronavirus itself.

AIG Must Cover Client’s $5.9 Million in Cyber-Related Losses, Judge Rules (Jeff Stone, Cyberscoop)
Insurance giant AIG must cover nearly $6 million in losses for a client that was fleeced by an email scam carried out by suspected Chinese hackers, a federal court has decided.
A judge in the Southern District of New York ruled Wednesday that AIG was in breach of contract when it previously denied a claim from SS&C Technologies, a $6 billion financial technology firm.

European Union Task Force Holds Its First Summit on Fighting Russian Disinformation (Eliza Mackintosh, CNN)
A European Union task force created to combat Russian disinformation is holding its first-ever summit on hostile foreign influence, as the bloc continues to try and tackle meddling from its eastern neighbor.
International experts gathered in Brussels on Thursday to discuss the evolving nature of the disinformation challenge within the EU, with an eye to mapping future threats and diagnosing areas of vulnerability, as well as identifying new solutions to the steep challenge.

Did British Academics Help Russia Deny War Crimes at the UN? Kremlin Cites “Conspiracy Theorist” University Lecturers in Attempts to Cover Up Atrocities in Syria (Henry Martin, Daily Mail)
A group of British academics who were cited by Russia to accuse humanitarian organisations in Syria of staging war crimes has sparked “serious concern” among diplomats. 
The Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media (WGSPM) were praised as “recognised experts and reputable scientists” at the United Nations Security Council by a senior Russian official last week who cited their work while claiming an alleged chemical weapons attack in 2018 did not take place.  
an unnamed European diplomat told HuffPost UK: “There is wide and serious concern about the extent to which academics in the WGSPM appear to be pursuing issues which so closely overlay with Russian lies and propaganda, particularly on the use of chemical weapons in Syria. (Cont.)