Can You Crack The Lottery, and Write Your Name in Sand?

If you play roulette, you should know that, on average, you will lose money. This is because of the ‘0’ number, and which changes the odds to be in the favour of the casino. As we have 37 numbers, of which 18 are black, the bet for black gives the odds of:

Odds = 18/37 = 0.484

Which means that you have a slightly lower than 50/50 chance of winning. If your stake was $100, then after 37 spins, you will be, on average, $100 down.

What is random?

Within cryptography, random numbers are used to generate things like encryption keys. If the generation of these keys could be predicted in some way, it may be possible to guess them. The two main types of random number generators are:

• Pseudo-Random Number Generators (PRNGs). This method repeats the random numbers after a given time (periodic). They are fast and are also deterministic, and are useful in producing a repeatable set of random numbers.
• True Random Number Generators (TRNGs). This method generates a true random number and uses some which is random. One approach is to monitor the movements of a mouse pointer on a screen or from the pauses in key-strokes. Overall the method is generally slow, especially if it involves human interaction, but is non-deterministic and…