How a man who worked for the Lottery Association may have hacked the system for a winning ticket
Apr 14, 2015, 01:41 IST
This winning ticket's numbers may have been predetermined, the investigators believe. The prosecutors wrote, according to The Des Moines Register: "There is sufficient evidence for a jury to reasonably conclude from the evidence that Defendant tampered with lottery equipment."
To do this, Lipton had to gain access into the Lottery's Draw Room where a non-internet connected computer uses random number-generating software to pick the day's numbers, as the Des Moines Register writes. Only two people at a time are ever allowed in this room, and there's always a camera recording what happens.Authorities believe Lipton bypassed these regulations and infiltrated the room by changing how the security cameras in the Lottery's draw room works. Instead of recording every second, on Nov. 20, 2010 the cameras only recorded one second per minute. This would have given Lipton enough time to go into the room and insert a thumb-drive into the random number generating computer.
MUSL, via LotteryPostEddie Raymond Tipton
According to Tipton's coworkers, the man had been "'obsessed' with root kits." Root kits are computer programs built to perform very specific functions and subsequently self-destruct.The prosecution reportedly has a witness who will testify that Tipton told him before December 2010 that he had already built a self-destructing root kit.Tipton's lawyers write in their motion that there is "actually no evidence that Defendant tampered with the RNG computers or program."The Iowa officials have been on Tipton's case for months, looking into just how and why the 2010 unclaimed Lotto ticket came to be.Now the man has been charged with two counts of fraud. He could serve as many as five years in prison and be fined as much as $7,500 for that ticket he never cashed.