SoylentNews

Prosecutors Suspect Man Hacked Lottery Computers to Score Winning Ticket

posted by cmn32480 on Thursday April 16 2015, @05:18AM   
from the you-feeling-lucky? dept.

AnonTechie writes in with an article from Ars Technica:

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.

• Re:Fools! (Score: 4, Informative) by TheRaven on Thursday April 16 2015, @10:45AM

  by TheRaven (270) on Thursday April 16 2015, @10:45AM (#171506) Journal

  In the UK, the national lottery has a number of different sets of balls and machines. Before each lottery, they ask a celebrity or a random member of the public to choose the one to use. That person (or someone in collusion with that person) could potentially (given physical access) tamper with either the balls or the machine, but the balls are also checked for size and weight (both before and after the draw), which means that you probably have to tamper with the machine. The machines are checked periodically and if they produce consistent results then tampering is obvious.

  --
  sudo mod me up

  Parent

  Starting Score:	1		point
  Moderation		+2
  Interesting=1, Informative=1, Total=2
  Extra 'Informative' Modifier		0
  Karma-Bonus Modifier		+1
  Total Score:		4