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Prosecutors say they have evidence indicating the former head of computer security for a state lottery association tampered with lottery computers prior to him buying a ticket that won a $14.3 million jackpot, according to a media report.
Eddie Raymond Tipton, 51, may have inserted a thumbdrive into a highly locked-down computer that's supposed to generate the random numbers used to determine lottery winners, The Des Moines Register reported, citing court documents filed by prosecutors. At the time, Tipton was the information security director of the Multi-State Lottery Association ), and he was later videotaped purchasing a Hot Lotto ticket that went on to fetch the winning $14.3 million payout.
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Prosecutors Suspect Man Hacked Lottery Computers to Score Winning Ticket
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(Score: 5, Interesting) by Justin Case on Thursday April 16 2015, @10:35AM
Frankly, I'm not the least bit surprised by this story.
> inserted a thumbdrive into a highly locked-down computer
If it had a USB slot it wasn't a "highly locked-down computer". For exactly this reason.
I did an audit of a lottery style computer a few years ago. It had almost too many security holes to list. When I presented my findings to the lottery people I might as well have been speaking Martian.
"Our random number generator is teh uber leet impossible to predict. No way anyone could ever."
"But that doesn't matter if I have full control of your server."
"...........??? But our random number generator..."
Seriously. That's all they could say. Random number generator, random number generator, random number generator. You even see the same thinking reflected in the first few posts to this article. Sure if the ping pong balls are televised it is too late to change the results later. But what if you can print a ticket after the drawing is over? Full control of the server would allow that!
In the end, the company didn't fix any of the basic flaws I pointed out. They truly didn't seem to understand the concept of someone else having control of their computer and what that would mean. And anyway, they don't care who wins, as long as they get their cut. And if you don't win because of a hacked system, how would you ever know to complain?
(Score: 2, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 16 2015, @12:13PM
Well, I wasn't there, but I guess it was in part also your failure at communicating at a level they can understand. You probably used many technical terms that were pure Chinese to them. You probably failed to simplify the description enough that they could understand.
Did you use this wording (or equivalent) at the presentation? And did you say so before they had effectively shut down their listening because of all the technical "gibberish" you told them (because to a layman most of the technical description is gibberish)? If you did, then it's clearly their fault, because there's probably no way to say it more clearly and more understandable. But otherwise, I can only say you should have.
(Score: 5, Funny) by khallow on Thursday April 16 2015, @01:21PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 16 2015, @07:31PM
have you ever thought about writing a sequel to lord of the rings or the wheel of time? you're definitely channeling one of the authors...
(Score: 2) by Zinho on Thursday April 16 2015, @09:43PM
Nope, (mis)quoting from Lewis Carroll. If you really want weapons-grade gibberish go to a mathematician, not a fantasy writer: generation of randomness is not something to be left to chance.
"Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin
(Score: 2) by Mr Big in the Pants on Thursday April 16 2015, @07:46PM
You weren't there. That is the only thing you wrote that is factual.
When spending money is involved, some managers tend to get blustery and willfully ignorant - especially when its coming out of their budget or to accept it would accept truisms to be false.
If YOU haven't been there before I doubt you have been to many important meetings..