Meridian raises $17 million to reimagine agent spreadsheets
The battle to tame spreadsheets with AI is far from over. A new company called Meridian has emerged from stealth with a more comprehensive IDE-based approach to agent financial modeling and deep pockets to build it. On Wednesday, the company announced it had raised $17 million in seed funding at a post-money valuation of $100 […]
Insulin without needles? Scientists invent gel to deliver insulin through the skin in animal studies
For many people with diabetes, daily insulin injections are required to manage blood sugar levels, but scientists have invented a new polymer-based gel that allows insulin to be administered through the skin without the use of needles. The gel, described in a November study published in Nature, normalized blood sugar levels in diabetic mice and […]
China has planted so many trees around the Taklamakan Desert that this ‘biological vacuum’ has been turned into a carbon sink
Massive tree planting in China is turning one of the world’s largest and driest deserts into a carbon sink. In other words, they absorb more carbon from the atmosphere than they emit, new research shows. The Taklamakan Desert (also spelled Taklamakan or Taklamakan) is slightly larger than the state of Montana, spanning approximately 130,000 square […]
Public training opens the door to crypto mining in Fortune 500 cloud environments
hacker newsFebruary 11, 2026Identity Security/Threat Exposure Deliberately vulnerable training applications are widely used for security education, internal testing, and product demonstrations. Tools like OWASP Juice Shop, DVWA, Hackazon, and bWAPP are designed to be insecure by default, so it helps to learn how common attack techniques work in a controlled environment. The problem is not […]
Diagnostic dilemma: Teen infected with rare ‘welder’s anthrax’, ninth known case ever reported
Patient: 18 years old from Louisiana Symptoms: The teenager, who was training to become a welder, developed a cough and was hospitalized a week later with pneumonia and respiratory failure. He was intubated at the hospital, with a tube inserted into his airway and a machine attached to help him breathe. The teenager was in […]
Microsoft patches 59 vulnerabilities, including 6 actively exploited zero-days
Microsoft on Tuesday released a security update that addresses 59 flaws across its software. This includes six vulnerabilities that are said to have been actually exploited. Of the 59 deficiencies, 5 are rated as ‘severe’, 52 are rated as ‘important’, and 2 are rated as ‘moderate’ severity. 25 of the patched vulnerabilities are classified as […]
SSHStalker botnet uses IRC C2 to control Linux systems via legacy kernel exploits
Ravi LakshmananFebruary 11, 2026Linux / Botnet Cybersecurity researchers have revealed details of a new botnet operation called SSHStalker that relies on the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) communication protocol for command and control (C2) purposes. “This toolset blends stealth helpers with legacy-era Linux exploits. Alongside log cleaners (utmp/wtmp/lastlog tampering) and rootkit-class artifacts, attackers maintain a large […]
North Korea-linked UNC1069 uses AI decoys to attack crypto organizations
A North Korea-related threat actor known as UNC1069 has been observed targeting the cryptocurrency sector to steal sensitive data from Windows and macOS systems, with the ultimate goal of facilitating financial theft. Google Mandiant researchers Ross Inman and Adrian Hernandez said, “This intrusion relied on social engineering schemes including compromised Telegram accounts, fake Zoom meetings, […]
Elon Musk speaks to the moon as co-founder leaves and IPO looms
On Tuesday night, Elon Musk called an all-hands meeting for xAI employees. Apparently he wanted to talk about the future of his AI company, especially how it relates to the moon. According to The New York Times, which heard the meeting, Musk told employees that xAI would need a lunar manufacturing facility, a lunar factory […]
Now, exactly half of xAI’s founding team has left the company.
On Monday night, xAI co-founder Yuhuai (Tony) Wu announced that he is leaving the company. “It’s time for the next chapter,” Wu wrote in a post on the late-night X show. “This is a time of possibilities. Small teams armed with AI can move mountains and redefine what is possible.” Less than a day later, […]