Head of Information Security Lottery in the United States received 25 years for fraud with a random number generator

Money very often provoke people to do bad things. Well, a lot of money can provoke a crime even as a completely respectable citizen. This happened to Eddie Raymond Tipton, head of the US State Lottery Information Security. Using his official position, he was able to modify the lottery random number generator. As a result, Raymond was able to predict the results. Accordingly, this was done for a reason - the security department chief, through fake people, began to win millions of US dollars.



Having received the first million, he wanted more and more, so that, in the end, the clever criminal fell into negligence - let down his own greed. The other day Raymond was announced a sentence according to which he would have to spend the next 25 years in the prison of Iowa, USA. In the last word, he stated that he was very sorry for what he had done: “It is difficult to even express how close people feel to me whom I hurt, and I regret it. Sorry".





Eddie Raymond Tipton in court with his lawyer



An enterprising information security specialist was arrested as early as 2015, all this time there was a legal process . Interestingly, fraud could go unnoticed if it were not for Raimond’s recklessness. The fact is that he cheated more than once and not twice - almost every year he received lottery money. As an information security specialist, he had access to the room where the lottery computer center was located. He injected his own code into the system, which caused the random number generator to stop working as it should. The system showed on certain days of certain months a collection of numbers that the fraudster knew. Three days a year, he knew the result.



The investigation began after the audit team saw that the winning numbers were similar. In the course of studying the circumstances of the case in the lottery software code, third-party DLLs were found, which Eddie Tipton introduced into the memory of the computer system. The combination predicted by the attacker should have appeared three times a year, two specific days of the week, at a specific time of the day. One of the dynamic libraries was running software that influenced the results. Falling numbers could predict the attacker and his accomplices.



In total, he used his scheme six times. For the first time Tipton did it in 2005. After winning the lottery security chief, he received several million US dollars. From the first win (under the terms of the lottery, you only need a lottery ticket to get the win, so you can remain anonymous), he bought a huge house with a pool and lots of amenities. Eddie tried to get the maximum reward in 2010. The amount was over $ 16.5 million.



To remain unnoticed for so many years it was helped by the fact that the lottery was held in different states of the country at different times. Plus, as mentioned above, you can get money anonymously. Tipton was assisted by his brother, a former Texas judge and businessman Robert Rhodes.



By the way, the problem with the security of the lottery, as you can understand, concerns not only Tipton with accomplices. A few years ago, The Register published the results of an investigation with the Iowa Lottery lottery. As it turned out, many entrepreneurs who traded lottery tickets, won many times in a row, the amounts that were in the case - $ 600 and above. One of these dealers won 53 times in a row since 2012.







During sentencing, Iowa County Judge said he was very sorry that Tompton’s mental abilities were not used to work for good, but to create a fraudulent scheme. Not only the main person involved in the case was arrested, but his associates, brother and business partner. All of them received significant prison sentences. As for the financial side of the matter, it is not yet clear whether Tompton’s property will be confiscated or not. The same edition of The Register reports that in many similar cases, the winnings still remained with the scammers and no one demanded it be returned. True, it was about much smaller amounts - about thousands of dollars, but not millions.



The ex-chief of the lottery information security department will spend 25 years in prison (perhaps he will be allowed to leave earlier by parole). Ruined his greed and carelessness.