SXSW 2019
How to Hack the Lottery: Secrets of Code-Breaking
Description:
In 2003, Michigan retirees Jerry and Marge Selbee pulled off a seemingly impossible feat: They cracked the lottery. The Selbees were not high-rolling gamblers: 64-year-old Jerry was a cereal-box designer; Marge had raised their six kids in their auto-parts town. But when Jerry spotted a flaw in a game called Winfall, he couldn’t resist exploiting it. Together with their kids, friends, and even their accountant, the Selbees launched an operation that spanned two states and made them a whopping $27 million. The way Jerry identified a weakness in Winfall can tell us a lot about exploiting or protecting systems—whether the lottery, Facebook, or government infrastructure. The panel will explore code-breaking and how hackers and cryptographers—as well as Jerry himself—look for and solve puzzles.
Other Resources / Information
Takeaways
- An understanding of how code-breakers approach seemingly intractable puzzles or systems.
- An appreciation for how this approach can be applied to any problem, from winning the lottery to hacking a Russian database to optimizing a commute.
- An awareness of the challenges that still remain unsolved for code-breakers.
Speakers
- Jason Fagone, Narrative writer, San Francisco Chronicle
- Jerry Selbee, Retired, N/A
- Elonka Dunin, Agile Coach, Accenture/Solutions IQ
- Steven Bellovin, Professor of Computer Science, Columbia University
Organizer
Kate Rodemann, Deputy Editor, Highline, HuffPost
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