Canada's 'Random' Immigration Lottery Uses Excel, Which Isn't Actually Random

https://gizmodo.com/canadas-random-immigration-lottery-uses-microsoft-excel-1826711895

by Karrot_Kream • 8 years ago

12 7 8 years ago

mrunkel• 8 years ago

Umm. Yeah. No.

For cryptography purposes, yeah, not random enough. But to pick a name out of a list of names that is probably pretty randomly loaded into excel, I'd say yes, this is random enough to be fair.

bluesign• 8 years ago

The problem is not the RNG here. Problem is the trust to the guy in front of Excel, and this process is not verifiable.

B1FF_PSUVM• 8 years ago

this process is not verifiable

Probably could be, along the lines of game-theory cake-sharing: "I cut, you choose." Say, one official supplies N names, another supplies N random numbers.

maaark• 8 years ago

Canada's not doing "I cut, you choose."

It's doing "I cut, he chooses, you don't get to eat."

luk32• 8 years ago

That was my 1st thought... Yeah ok, so the random function is not statistically good...

How exploitable it is? What is the easiest vector of attack against the lottery?

If the poor rnd was the biggest flaw the system would probably be really good.

I don't know but peculiar choice of perspective seems baffling and undermines the credibility of source imho.

Also, the process might be random if the original input was, so the whole premise of the article might be moot. I find the style quite tabloid-like.

shrx• 8 years ago

Original article: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-anything-woul...

bryanlarsen• 8 years ago

This non-story is a dupe: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17270754 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17282156

Canada's 'Random' Immigration Lottery Uses Excel, Which Isn't Actually Random

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