Dom187 Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 Not getting into the probability side of things, I work in IT and we use random number generators when we generate SSL certificates for web servers. If we ever found out something that is meant to be random, isnt, we would investigate. Given the facts raised by OP I am amazed that they havent investigated, image if there was a bug somewhere in thier software and the numbers where not being generated randomly all the tickets that have been sold over the years. You work in IT and you dont know that a computer is unable to generate a truely random number? Yes I know that, next time I will put quotes around random number generator so you know, I know. I do love the way people just post to pick at others posts on here... I was more pointing out a 'random number generator' for its given scenario needs to be suitable for its intented use. The fact someone can get nearly the same numbers bar one number twice in a row is not suitable. At my last job we were setting up some Ubuntu HTTP servers and we where one of the first few companies to report odd behavour when generating self signed SSL certs. All the machines had exactly the same hardware (I believe some hardware details where used when generating the random seed), we then lead to this discovery - http://www.entrust.net/knowledge-base/t ... fm?tn=7468. My point is if everyone just sat there and said "ah its a fluke", that vulnerability would never of been found and we would have had an ecommerce site running with that weakness. As its been mentioned it in fairness was more likely a fluke, but given how much upset it would cause if more people started reporting this problem, I would have thought Camelot (or whoever they outsourced the site to) should investigate how they are generating these 'random numbers'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dom187 Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 Just seen the National Lottery site is now down for maintenance..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris`I Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 Just seen the National Lottery site is now down for maintenance..... Hmmm, wonder if they are looking into it? Shouldnt need to take the site down to do that though, site being down is either coincidence or there was something really wrong with their random number generator and they've fixed it rather sharpish! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coldel Posted January 5, 2012 Author Share Posted January 5, 2012 I had a missed call from a Watford number, it is the customer care number I believe. I also got an 'urgent' email asking me to call them as they need to clear access to my account to check the transaction and need to ask me security details to confirm I am me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dom187 Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 The plot thickens!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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