Axios

Three companies — leaders in their respective industries — are mired in a public spat over the fallout of July's global IT outage.

Why it matters: The she-said, he-said stories spilling out from Delta Air Lines, cybersecurity giant CrowdStrike and Microsoft have escalated into a blame game full of legal threats — just one repercussion of a world increasingly full of a few key tech dependencies.

Even before Vice President Kamala Harris officially picked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, social media was replete with memes hailing him as "everyone's Midwestern dad."

Why it matters: The internet's embrace of Walz's affable nature and everyman appeal further highlights the contrast between the Republican and Democratic tickets in the 2024 race when it comes to appealing to young voters.

Delta passengers filed a lawsuit against the airline for refunds following the chaotic CrowdStrike worldwide outage that led to thousands of flight cancellations.

Why it matters: The July outage hit businesses worldwide and was estimated to be the largest IT outage in history. It left Delta in a head-to-head battle with CrowdStrike, which is already facing a class action lawsuit over alleged negligence.

Keeping abreast of the evolving defense landscape requires talking to those shaping it.

• This week's conversation is with Shyam Sankar, the chief technology officer at Palantir Technologies.

The first Tactical Intelligence Targeting Access Node was delivered to a base in Washington state, just months after Palantir Technologies won a $178 million contract to build prototypes.

Why it matters: TITAN is key to the U.S. military's connect-everything-everywhere campaign and is a dramatic move away from spreadsheets and sticky notes of the past.

A ballooning number of spying technologies inside and outside Earth's atmosphere are making military maneuvers and materiel nearly impossible to hide.

Why it matters: Concealment and surprise have long been winning tenets of warfare. But these ever-watching eyes complicate the calculus of what gear to buy, how to move and where to dig in.

CrowdStrike is fighting back against Delta Air Lines' claims that the cybersecurity vendor didn't provide enough assistance during its recent global IT outage.

Why it matters: How a judge rules in Delta's lawsuit against CrowdStrike could set a precedent for other companies that choose to take legal action over the outage.

Members of the cybersecurity community will express support for Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential campaign at a fundraiser on the sidelines of two major conferences this week.

Why it matters: This is the first major presidential fundraising event hosted by and for the cybersecurity industry this election cycle.

AI security researchers will spend their week in Las Vegas figuring out how to report security flaws to AI model operators — and what kinds of flaws warrant a report.

Why it matters: Technology companies don't currently have a standardized way to accept findings from well-intentioned hackers who find flaws in their AI products.

X on Tuesday filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against an advertising industry coalition and its members—including CVS Health, Mars, Orsted and Unilever—alleging the group abused its influence over marketers and ad agencies to discriminate unfairly against X, prompting an ad boycott.

Why it matters: The lawsuit is part of a broader effort by conservative lawmakers and media companies to go after GARM, the Global Alliance for Responsible Media.

The pandemic killed the corporate cafeteria, but many workplaces are moving to more flexible options to keep employees fed — and happy.

Why it matters: Free food is a popular corporate perk, but in today's hybrid work environments, fluctuating attendance can lead to waste.

Aurora Innovation raised $483 million last week — more than expected — by selling additional shares in the publicly traded self-driving truck company.

Why it matters: The fresh capital provides added momentum for Aurora, which is one of the few companies still able to attract investors after a shakeout in the autonomous vehicle industry.

A new campaign seeking to connect with Latino voters is meeting them on the platform where they spend the most time: YouTube.

Why it matters: Latinos spend roughly twice the amount of time on YouTube than other racial and demographic groups do, making it "a new frontier" for messaging with Hispanics, says Emmanuelle Leal-Santillan, a spokesperson for Somos Votantes, one of the groups involved in the effort.

CrowdStrike is facing a class action lawsuit following last month's faulty software update that crashed millions of Windows devices worldwide.

The big picture: It's the latest legal issue for the software company responsible for the global, cross-industry internet outage — estimated to be the largest IT outage in history — that grounded flights and halted banking.