Can a hacked DLL make you rich? New evidence has emerged in a 2015 case, revealing that the security officer of an OPAP-style lottery company in USA used malicious DLL files to predict winning lottery numbers, according to a publication by The Des Moines Register.
The case saw the light public for the first time in April 2015, when authorities began the trial of Eddie Tipton, 53, the former director of information security for the Multi-State Lottery Association (MSLA).
In July of that year, Tipton was convicted of two counts scams, in the Hot Lotto lottery after there were suspicions that he "won" 14,3 million dollars.
But prosecutors could not prove how Tipton managed to guess the correct numbers. To collect the profits he then enlisted the help of Robert Clark Rhodes II, 46, of Sugarland, Texas.
Immediately after Tipton's capture, MSLA launched security checks on the company's computers in an attempt to find out how he managed to manipulate the draw system, but the technicians did not find anything suspicious. On the other hand, in police checks, he discovered a hacked DLL on one of the computers that were responsible for producing the random numbers used for the draw.
The hacked DLL was identical to the original, except that it had two extra blocks in its code. These two blocks were added by Tipton and helped him add a different algorithm to the random number generator.
Tipton was responsible for programming these computers in all MSLA segments across the country, and so the hacked DLL existed in company systems across the country.
Prosecutors say they have found evidence of rigged sweepstakes in Iowa, Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Wisconsin. Detecting the malicious DLL was quite difficult as it was programmed to self-delete after a period of time space.
Prosecutors also blamed Tipton's brother Tommie Tipton, for whom they filed a lawsuit.
Authorities suspect that Tommie Tipton, a former police officer, helped his brother to collect the winnings from Oklahoma, Colorado, and Wisconsin.
Overall, the authorities report that the two brothers set six draws between 2005 and 2011, which earned them 16.500.000 dollars.
