As many people around the country are eagerly awaiting tonight’s estimated 450 million dollar multi-state Powerball lottery drawing, it seems like a good time to look at the continuing saga of Eddie Tipton. Last July I informed you of the conviction of Eddie Tipton, the former security director of the Multi-State Lottery Association of electronically rigging the Iowa Hot Lotto game enabling him to buy the winning 16.5 million dollar ticket. The jury believed the evidence that indicated that Tipton used a portable USB drive to install malware on to the computer that picked the winning number. The computer is not accessible to the Internet in order to prevent tampering and only four people including Tipton had access to the room where the computer was housed. The closed circuit camera that recorded activity in the room had been wiped clean. In addition, the sophisticated malware used by Tipton was self-deleting and left utterly no trace on the lottery computer. However, despite the lack of either photographic evidence showing Tipton actually tampering with the computer or evidence of the precise malware used, after a week’s deliberations, the jury found Tipton guilty of two counts of fraud and he is facing a potential prison sentence of ten years. Tipton is presently free while his case is being appealed.
Now, however, the investigation of Tipton has expanded into accusations that over a six year period he tampered with the lotteries of as many as 40 states that used the random number generators of the Multi-State Lottery Association of which Tipton was the former security director. Already lottery officials in Colorado, Wisconsin and Oklahoma have confirmed that they paid winnings worth 8 million dollars to Tipton associates including Tipton’s college roommate.
TIPS
No computer system is foolproof, however this case does highlight vulnerabilities in the computer security systems used to protect the honesty of state sponsored lotteries. By the way, Tipton had no involvement with the multi-state Powerball game.