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Investigation Into Security Director Who Hacked the Lottery Expands (bgr.com)

Posted by samzenpus on from the is-there-anything-else-you'd-like-to-tell-us? dept.

An anonymous reader sends the latest update on Eddie Tipton, the man who worked for the Multi-State Lottery Association who was convicted of rigging a lottery game so he could win a $14 million jackpot. BGR reports: "Not too long ago, Eddie Tipton was convicted of hacking into the Multi-State Lottery Association's computer system in order to rig a nearly $17 million jackpot in Iowa. Now comes word that an investigation into Tipton's hacking activities is expanding to include a number of other states. Thus far, lottery officials from Colorado, Wisconsin and Oklahoma have indicated that Tipton may have also gamed lottery jackpots in their respective states. What makes this saga all the more interesting is that Tipton actually used to work at the Multi-State Lottery Association as a security director. In that capacity, Tipton allegedly installed a rootkit onto his company's computer system that influenced the manner in which 'random' numbers were generated. As a result, Tipton was able to calculate and gain access to winning lotto numbers before their public unveiling. With the numbers in tow, authorities claim that Tipton would reveal the winning numbers to friends who would then buy 'winning' lotto tickets and then collect on big paydays."

5 of 167 comments (clear)

  1. Serious question.. by Wovel · · Score: 4, Interesting

    There are states that use a computer to pick their numbers and not balls pushed out by a machine?

    1. Re:Serious question.. by Ecuador · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Not only that, but they seem to license a specific random number generator from a 3rd party, with, apparently no oversight, security etc in place.
      I wonder if they pay good money for the generator to be "really" random, not like the pseudo-random crap you usually get with one-liners...

      --
      Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
    2. Re:Serious question.. by Anonymice · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I call balls on that!

      The analogue method with balls shown on live TV isn't done "for show", it's done specifically to prevent the risk of tampering - the exact same reason why we all still vote with pieces of paper & 100s/1000s of people counting them out by hand.
      Drawing the numbers beforehand has zero to gain, other than a ton of controversy if something happened to backfire.

  2. Lawsuit? by hawguy · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Does this open the hacked lottery to class action lawsuits by people who played the rigged lottery but had no chance of winning?

  3. Re:Can we just drop the lottery already? by onkelonkel · · Score: 4, Interesting

    When Italy first proposed a state run lottery, the Catholic Church pointed out that gambling was a sin. The government replied that lotteries aren't gambling, they are a tax on imbeciles.

    --
    None of them can see the clouds; The polished wings don't care.