This whole generational conflict thing has gone too far.
The big picture: Pollsters and the media love to play up the differences between Gens Z and X, between millennials and Boomers, but generational borders are always in flux, and who you are has much more to do with where you are in life than who you happen to share birth years with.
The would-be mass poisoning that a small town in Florida dodged last week is a chilling reminder that cybersecurity — often conceived in the popular imagination as purely an abstract province of ones and zeroes — can be a matter of life or death.
Why it matters: The fact that attackers were (if only briefly) able to access the control system for a municipal water supply should be a wake-up call for U.S. officials regarding the digital insecurity of many key pieces of infrastructure.
Researchers have discovered new “highly malleable, highly sophisticated” malware from a state-backed Chinese hacker group, according to Palo Alto Network’s Unit 42 threat intelligence team.
Why it matters: The malware “stands in a class of its own in terms of being one of the most sophisticated, well-engineered and difficult-to-detect samples of shellcode employed by an Advanced Persistent Threat (APT),” according to Unit 42.
An Iranian cyber spying group nicknamed Domestic Kitten has “targeted over 1,200 individuals with more than 600 successful infections” since 2017, according to new research by Check Point, an Israeli-U.S. security firm.
Why it matters: Repressive regimes around the world, including Iran, devote significant resources to targeting individuals and organizations they view as potential challengers to their rule or internal stability. Revelations about campaigns like these can help show who precisely these regimes believe are their greatest threats.
A coalition of app developers who want Apple to relax stringent App Store rules is hiring a new director as it prepares to amp up its work, according to a message obtained by Axios.
Why it matters: Apple has increasingly clashed with developers over the heavy cut it takes on app and in-app purchases and its practice of blocking most apps from using their own payment methods for subscriptions. The Coalition for App Fairness aims to be the premier global voice for app makers in the fight.
Sentropy, a startup backed by Reddit co-founder Alex Ohanian, has spent much of its first year focused on helping protect digital platforms from abuse using machine learning. On Tuesday, it announced a new service aimed at helping Twitter users avoid abusive comments.
Why it matters: People, especially prominent women, people of color and LGBTQ people, encounter frequent online abuse and often have to first view inflammatory posts before they can take action, such as blocking or muting those doing the harassment.
When I asked Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff in an "Axios on HBO" interview last year whether he regretted investing so much in offices, especially in high-rise buildings, he told me to ask again in a year.
The latest: It's been nine months, but already Salesforce is envisioning a much more partial, limited return to the office for its workforce. The company announced Tuesday a new "work from anywhere" strategy that gives employees far more flexibility to choose what place they consider the office.
Democrats want a $7.6 billion fund to help schools and libraries pay for students' distance learning costs as part of the latest COVID-19 relief package.
Why it matters: Despite some progress, an estimated 12 million students lack sufficient internet or the devices necessary to participate in virtual learning while schools are closed during the pandemic.
While the smartphone rules today's tech world as the primary computing device, the next big hardware platform is widely expected to be some version of augmented reality glasses.
The big picture: Facebook, Apple, Microsoft and Google are all pursuing this vision, and many pieces are starting to fall into place. But the holy grail of an affordable computer inside something not much bulkier than a standard pair of glasses is likely still a few years off.
Marketing tech firm Applecart plans to announce a trio of big hires today, including a longtime Democratic strategist, a noted data scientist and a Twitter and Google veteran.
The big picture: The moves give the New York company added muscle in DC and beyond. The firm specializes in using social data to aid political campaigns and advocacy groups.
Snapchat on Tuesday rolled out a new feature reminding its users — the vast majority of whom are under the age of 30 — to remove unwanted connections from their contact list.
Why it matters: While most social networks try to bait engagement by encouraging users to add as many new connections as possible, Snapchat wants to instead use this moment to remind users that “Snapchat is for real friends.”
After years of focusing on producing content for the latest hot app, investors, tech leaders and newsrooms are starting to pay renewed attention to publishing on the open web, where independent publishers have more control over data and distribution.
The big picture: The open web — content that's accessible via any web browser, easily linked to, and doesn't require logging in to an account — is winning new attention even as "walled garden" apps like Facebook continue to dominate online distribution and the Google and Facebook duopoly controls most of the digital ad market.
Facebook on Monday became the latest in a run of tech firms and media outlets taking action to stem the tide of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation, but experts worry the scramble to limit vaccination skepticism may be too little, too late.
Why it matters: "With all of these press releases, what we don't understand is, how is it actually going to be operationalized?" says Claire Wardle, the U.S. director of anti-misinformation nonprofit First Draft. "Anti-vaxxers have historically always figured out where the policy guidelines are and figure out a way around them."
Recent appearances from Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk on Clubhouse are bringing attention to the venture-backed audio social network, which has also seen a boost in downloads over the past few weeks.
Yes, but: The app is already beginning to face the same growing pains that other upstart social networks have experienced for years. For example, Clubhouse — which requires an invite to access — is reportedly already being blocked in China.
It will take an all-out national effort to dismantle the radicalization pipeline that has planted conspiracy theories in the heads of millions of Americans and inspired last month's attack on the Capitol, experts tell Axios.
Two key measures that could make a difference:
Keeping extremists out of the institutions where they could do the greatest damage — like the military, police departments and legislatures.
Providing help for those who have embraced dangerous ideologies.
A majority of Americans think social media "has played a role in radicalizing people," according to a new poll from Accountable Tech and Greenberg Quinlan Rosner shared exclusively with Axios.
The big picture: As misinformation proliferates online about COVID-19, vaccines and politics, social platforms are walking a tightrope between protecting freedom of speech and tamping down the flow of misleading content.
Reddit said Monday that it raised more than $250 million in Series E funding from existing and new investors. Sources say the company raised the new funding at a $6 billion pre-money valuation.
Why it matters: The company has doubled its valuation since its last funding round of $300 million at a $3 billion valuation in 2019.
