Weak RNG Assists Man's Lottery Fortune

Iowa prosecutors have recently uncovered evidence that a former computer security worker modified a RNG used to pick numbers for several State lotteries. Eddie Raymond Tipton has already been tried and convicted on two counts of fraud, but officials only recently uncovered the manner in which he was able to produce the winning numbers for six different drawings worth millions between 2005-2011.

Investigators found that Tipton introduced a rootkit that used specially crafted DLL's to redirect drawings based on specific conditions, using an algorithm he could easily solve. ArsTechnica reported that it was unclear "if officials have tightened the requirements to make future tampering harder" by trashing all their Microsoft computers and using a more secure Linux-based distribution instead.

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