diff --git a/stdlib/Random/Project.toml b/stdlib/Random/Project.toml
index 6aa9f65374539..51915c2e6e388 100644
--- a/stdlib/Random/Project.toml
+++ b/stdlib/Random/Project.toml
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ uuid = "9a3f8284-a2c9-5f02-9a11-845980a1fd5c"
 
 [deps]
 Serialization = "9e88b42a-f829-5b0c-bbe9-9e923198166b"
+SHA = "ea8e919c-243c-51af-8825-aaa63cd721ce"
 
 [extras]
 Test = "8dfed614-e22c-5e08-85e1-65c5234f0b40"
diff --git a/stdlib/Random/src/DSFMT.jl b/stdlib/Random/src/DSFMT.jl
index f72a9dd5e9a0a..6aab7c8b8d0e7 100644
--- a/stdlib/Random/src/DSFMT.jl
+++ b/stdlib/Random/src/DSFMT.jl
@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ function dsfmt_init_gen_rand(s::DSFMT_state, seed::UInt32)
           s.val, seed)
 end
 
-function dsfmt_init_by_array(s::DSFMT_state, seed::Vector{UInt32})
+function dsfmt_init_by_array(s::DSFMT_state, seed::AbstractVector{UInt32})
     ccall((:dsfmt_init_by_array,:libdSFMT),
           Cvoid,
           (Ptr{Cvoid}, Ptr{UInt32}, Int32),
diff --git a/stdlib/Random/src/RNGs.jl b/stdlib/Random/src/RNGs.jl
index 281acad533dad..ce52235ff7b6a 100644
--- a/stdlib/Random/src/RNGs.jl
+++ b/stdlib/Random/src/RNGs.jl
@@ -278,9 +278,17 @@ end
 
 #### seed!()
 
-function seed!(r::MersenneTwister, seed::Vector{UInt32})
+function seed!(r::MersenneTwister, seed::Vector{UInt32}; hash=true)
     copyto!(resize!(r.seed, length(seed)), seed)
-    dsfmt_init_by_array(r.state, r.seed)
+    if hash # hash the seed to make it defensively more robust
+        c = SHA.SHA2_512_CTX()
+        # hash VERSION to help people not rely on stream stability between minor releases
+        SHA.update!(c, reinterpret(UInt8, [VERSION.major, VERSION.minor]))
+        SHA.update!(c, reinterpret(UInt8, seed))
+        dsfmt_init_by_array(r.state, reinterpret(UInt32, SHA.digest!(c)))
+    else
+        dsfmt_init_by_array(r.state, r.seed)
+    end
     mt_setempty!(r)
     mt_setempty!(r, UInt128)
     fillcache_zeros!(r)
diff --git a/stdlib/Random/src/Random.jl b/stdlib/Random/src/Random.jl
index 5197ac1c34e7b..819d8a33ba05c 100644
--- a/stdlib/Random/src/Random.jl
+++ b/stdlib/Random/src/Random.jl
@@ -14,6 +14,8 @@ using .DSFMT
 using Base.GMP.MPZ
 using Base.GMP: Limb
 
+import SHA
+
 using Base: BitInteger, BitInteger_types, BitUnsigned, require_one_based_indexing
 
 import Base: copymutable, copy, copy!, ==, hash, convert,