Egyptian Sinai manhunt after Palestinian terror cell (UPDATED)

From Israel's Channel 2 TV news, 20:00 Saturday night:

Egyptian security forces are in what is being described as an intensive manhunt after a Palestinian terror cell from Gaza that is planning to carry out an attack on Israeli tourists in the Sinai Peninsula.

Israeli security officials are urging Israeli tourists to leave Sinai immediately.

The Egyptians have been pursuing the cell, which reportedly numbers at least four to five members, for the last five days.

More information is here, here and here.

Israeli ambulances and crews at Taba border crossing with Egypt;
victims of Sinai terror bombing lined up on grass. Egypt forbade
Israeli rescue teams access to bombed hotel. (Photo: Guardian)

(Considering Egypt's stunning lack of success in foiling weapons, drugs, prostitute and white slaving into Gaza, and from there into Israel, I'd say the MDA ambulances should start lining up at the Taba border crossing point near Eilat, ASAP. Why the glum outlook? Because of this, and this, and this, and this, and this, and this.)

When ATM's talk, your money walks: Israeli researchers

The following reminds me of a quick, clever, scene in actor-comedian Steve Martin's L.A. Story:

Two lines of people, dressed for a night on the town inch towards a bank ATM: standing in one line are those withdrawing cash; the second, polite, also well-dressed muggers who greet their prey at the point of transaction, like cheery actor/waiters saying, "Hi! I'm Todd! I'll be your mugger this evening!"

A group of researchers at Algorithmic Research (ARX), an Israeli security firm, published a paper two weeks ago describing a very serious flaw inherent in most ATMs. Apparently, between the time that you input your PIN and the time that the machine spits out your cash, a dataset containing your PIN and account number is encrypted and decrypted a few times while being routed along the banking network -- and somewhere along that point, it's conceivable that those numbers could be intercepted.