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Article URL: https://www.theatlantic.com/national-security/2026/02/europe-nuclear-weapons-sweden-munich/686003/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47059531

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Article URL: https://hacker-backlinks.browserbox.io/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47059524

Points: 1

# Comments: 1

Article URL: https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2026/02/18/native-freebsd-kerberos-ldap-with-freeipa-idm/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47059520

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Article URL: https://storopoli.com/posts/2024-03-23-dead-man-switch.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47059519

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Article URL: https://ecp-solutions.github.io/ASF/Language%20reference.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47059516

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

Article URL: https://glow-name.com

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47059507

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

The vulnerability added to CISA’s KEV catalog affects ThreatSonar Anti-Ransomware and it was patched in 2024.

The post CISA: Hackers Exploiting Vulnerability in Product of Taiwan Security Firm TeamT5 appeared first on SecurityWeek.

Article URL: https://delulufoundersfund.com/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47059484

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Article URL: https://dl.acm.org/doi/epdf/10.1145/208666.208684

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47059480

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Article URL: https://github.com/GSiesto/PDFLince

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47059477

Points: 2

# Comments: 1

Article URL: https://learn.adafruit.com/openclaw-on-raspberry-pi/installing-openclaw

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47059474

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Article URL: https://easel.games/@raysplaceinspace/logical-answer

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47059442

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Hey HN,

I built Shmelo as a little break from work stuff.

Its a simple leaderboard for games with friends: set it up fast, log games, share a public link.

Works with any game as long as it has winners and losers.

Rankings use elo system (like chess). it stays fair even if people miss a few sessions. You can also see how rankings change over time, and tap into more stats if you want.

Feedback appreciated.

Cheers!

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47059424

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

Article URL: https://www.stepsecurity.io/blog/cline-supply-chain-attack-detected-cline-2-3-0-silently-installs-openclaw

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47059418

Points: 9

# Comments: 1

Scammers have found a new use for AI: creating custom chatbots posing as real AI assistants to pressure victims into buying worthless cryptocurrencies.

We recently came across a live “Google Coin” presale site featuring a chatbot that claimed to be Google’s Gemini AI assistant. The bot guided visitors through a polished sales pitch, answered their questions about investment, projecting returns, and ultimately ended with victims sending an irreversible crypto payment to the scammers.

Google does not have a cryptocurrency. But as “Google Coin” has appeared before in scams, anyone checking it out might think it’s real. And the chatbot was very convincing.

AI as the closer

The chatbot introduced itself as,

“Gemini — your AI assistant for the Google Coin platform.”

It used Gemini-style branding, including the sparkle icon and a green “Online” status indicator, creating the immediate impression that it was an official Google product.

When asked, “Will I get rich if I buy 100 coins?”, the bot responded with specific financial projections. A $395 investment at the current presale price would be worth $2,755 at listing, it claimed, representing “approximately 7x” growth. It cited a presale price of $3.95 per token, an expected listing price of $27.55, and invited further questions about “how to participate.”

This is the kind of personalized, responsive engagement that used to require a human scammer on the other end of a Telegram chat. Now the AI does it automatically.

A persona that never breaks

What stood out during our analysis was how tightly controlled the bot’s persona was. We found that it:

• Claimed consistently to be “the official helper for the Google Coin platform”
• Refused to provide any verifiable company details, such as a registered entity, regulator, license number, audit firm, or official email address
• Dismissed concerns and redirected them to vague claims about “transparency” and “security”
• Refused to acknowledge any scenario in which the project could be a scam
• Redirected tougher questions to an unnamed “manager” (likely a human closer waiting in the wings)

When pressed, the bot doesn’t get confused or break character. It loops back to the same scripted claims: a “detailed 2026 roadmap,” “military-grade encryption,” “AI integration,” and a “growing community of investors.”

Whoever built this chatbot locked it into a sales script designed to build trust, overcome doubt, and move visitors toward one outcome: sending cryptocurrency.

Why AI chatbots change the scam model

Scammers have always relied on social engineering. Build trust. Create urgency. Overcome skepticism. Close the deal.

Traditionally, that required human operators, which limited how many victims could be engaged at once. AI chatbots remove that bottleneck entirely.

A single scam operation can now deploy a chatbot that:

• Engages hundreds of visitors simultaneously, 24 hours a day
• Delivers consistent, polished messaging that sounds authoritative
• Impersonates a trusted brand’s AI assistant (in this case, Google’s Gemini)
• Responds to individual questions with tailored financial projections
• Escalates to human operators only when necessary

This matches a broader trend identified by researchers. According to Chainalysis, roughly 60% of all funds flowing into crypto scam wallets were tied to scammers using AI tools. AI-powered scam infrastructure is becoming the norm, not the exception. The chatbot is just one piece of a broader AI-assisted fraud toolkit—but it may be the most effective piece, because it creates the illusion of a real, interactive relationship between the victim and the “brand.”

The bait: a polished fake

The chatbot sits on top of a convincing scam operation. The Google Coin website mimics Google’s visual identity with a clean, professional design, complete with the “G” logo, navigation menus, and a presale dashboard. It claims to be in “Stage 5 of 5” with over 9.9 million tokens sold and a listing date of February 18—all manufactured urgency.

To borrow credibility, the site displays logos of major companies—OpenAI, Google, Binance, Squarespace, Coinbase, and SpaceX—under a “Trusted By Industry” banner. None of these companies have any connection to the project.

If a visitor clicks “Buy,” they’re taken to a wallet dashboard that looks like a legitimate crypto platform, showing balances for “Google” (on a fictional “Google-Chain”), Bitcoin, and Ethereum.

The purchase flow lets users buy any number of tokens they want and generates a corresponding Bitcoin payment request to a specific wallet address. The site also layers on a tiered bonus system that kicks in at 100 tokens and scales up to 100,000: buy more and the bonuses climb from 5% up to 30% at the top tier. It’s a classic upsell tactic designed to make you think it’s smarter to spend more.

Every payment is irreversible. There is no exchange listing, no token with real value, and no way to get your money back.

What to watch for

We’re entering an era where the first point of contact in a scam may not be a human at all. AI chatbots give scammers something they’ve never had before: a tireless, consistent, scalable front-end that can engage victims in what feels like a real conversation. When that chatbot is dressed up as a trusted brand’s official AI assistant, the effect is even more convincing.

According to the FTC’s Consumer Sentinel data, US consumers reported losing $5.7 billion to investment scams in 2024 (more than any other type of fraud, and up 24% on the previous year). Cryptocurrency remains the second-largest payment method scammers use to extract funds, because transactions are fast and irreversible. Now add AI that can pitch, persuade, and handle objections without a human operator—and you have a scalable fraud model.

AI chatbots on scam sites will become more common. Here’s how to spot them:

They impersonate known AI brands. A chatbot calling itself “Gemini,” “ChatGPT,” or “Copilot” on a third-party crypto site is almost certainly not what it claims to be. Anyone can name a chatbot anything.

They won’t answer due diligence questions. Ask what legal entity operates the platform, what financial regulator oversees it, or where the company is registered. Legitimate operations can answer those questions, scam bots try to avoid them (and if they do answer, verify it).

They project specific returns. No legitimate investment product promises a specific future price. A chatbot telling you that your $395 will become $2,755 is not giving you financial information—it’s running a script.

They create urgency. Pressure tactics like, “stage 5 ends soon,” “listing date approaching,” “limited presale” are designed to push you into making fast decisions.

How to protect yourself

Google does not have a cryptocurrency. It has not launched a presale. And its Gemini AI is not operating as a sales assistant on third-party crypto sites. If you encounter anything suggesting otherwise, close the tab.

• Verify claim on the official website of the company being referenced.
• Don’t rely on a chatbot’s branding. Anyone can name a bot anything.
• Never send cryptocurrency based on projected returns.
• Search the project name along with “scam” or “review” before sending any money.
• Use web protection tools like Malwarebytes Browser Guard, which is free to use and blocks known and unknown scam sites.

If you’ve already sent funds, report it to your local law enforcement, the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov, and the FBI’s IC3 at ic3.gov.

IOCs

0xEc7a42609D5CC9aF7a3dBa66823C5f9E5764d6DA

98388xymWKS6EgYSC9baFuQkCpE8rYsnScV4L5Vu8jt

DHyDmJdr9hjDUH5kcNjeyfzonyeBt19g6G

TWqzJ9sF1w9aWwMevq4b15KkJgAFTfH5im

bc1qw0yfcp8pevzvwp2zrz4pu3vuygnwvl6mstlnh6

r9BHQMUdSgM8iFKXaGiZ3hhXz5SyLDxupY

We don’t just report on scams—we help detect them

Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. If something looks dodgy to you, check if it’s a scam using Malwarebytes Scam Guard. Submit a screenshot, paste suspicious content, or share a link, text or phone number, and we’ll tell you if it’s a scam or legit. Available with Malwarebytes Premium Security for all your devices, and in the Malwarebytes app for iOS and Android.

i noticed that Google profile image URLs accept a size parameter (s96, s512, etc.). if you increase it to something large like s9999, the server returns a much higher-resolution image even when that size was not originally uploaded.

example: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/default-user=s9999

i am curious what the underlying system is here... are they doing real-time upscaling?

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47059117

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

I built this after the usual tussle with friends about where to meet.

I tried every other meet-in-the-middle app, but they weren’t practical because they relied solely on geographic midpoints. The centre can be a 45-minute trip for one person and a 10-minute trip for another, depending on the route.

Equidistance uses the Google Maps Distance Matrix API to test a grid of candidate points and picks the one that minimises the difference in travel times. It then searches for actual venues (cafes, pubs, etc.) near that point and scores them by fairness.

It supports public transport, driving and walking. There’s also a departure time setting, since equidistant times depend on which trains are running.

The app prioritises independent businesses, but it will show chains if nothing else is available.

Stack: vanilla JS, Google Maps APIs (Distance Matrix, Maps JavaScript, Places)

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47059107

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Article URL: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ng-interactive/2026/feb/17/ai-startups-work-culture-san-francisco

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47059103

Points: 1

# Comments: 1

Article URL: https://github.com/CrimsonDemon567PC/Mantis

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47059079

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Article URL: https://www.androidauthority.com/robot-vacuum-hack-3641615/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47059078

Points: 1

# Comments: 0