State lotteries should be on guard for insider security threats.
That’s the bottom line from fraud charges against a former security official with the Multi-State Lottery Association, whom authorities believe tampered with lottery computers prior to buying a winning ticket in Iowa in 2010.
{mosads}Eddie Raymond Tipton faces up to five years in prison for allegedly inserting a thumb drive into a secure lottery computer system, infecting it with software that allowed him to control the winning numbers.
Prosecutors say they have evidence to support these allegations. Tipton was arrested in January and charged with two counts of fraud. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Police believe the alleged crime took place in November 2010, when Tipton entered a highly secure room housing the lottery computer system to purportedly change the time on the machine. Accusations regarding the malicious thumb drive emerged in court documents filed last week.
Tipton was later recorded on video buying a lottery ticket that won a $14.3 million prize. The winnings went unclaimed for almost a year before a mysterious company incorporated in Belize tried to claim them through an attorney based in New York, according to the Des Moines Register.
His trial is scheduled for July 13.
“We’re disappointed to learn that someone who has worked as a vendor in the lottery industry has been charged in this case,” Iowa Lottery CEO Terry Rich said at a news conference in January.
“At the same time, we’re gratified that the thorough procedures and protocols we’ve developed to protect the security and integrity of our games worked to prevent the payment of a disputed prize.”