Telstra has revealed the addition of almost one million new mobile services in the six months to December 2011, but Sensis revenues plummeted 24 percent in 12 months.
An Internet security resources site has purportedly revealed details obtained by a hacker of the ending of the upcoming “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” book. The hacker claims to have obtained a full transcipt of the new Harry Potter story by hacking Bloomsbury Publishing, British publisher of the J K Rowling books.
The hacker, who calls himself “Gabriel”, claims
to have exploited the PCs of one or more employees at Bloomsbury
Publishing by sending an email-borne threat. Once the user activated
the threat, by opening the email, the hacker professes to have been
able to snag himself a draft copy of the highly anticipated book.
Information about the claimed hack and plot spoiler details are
contained in messages posted on the Full Disclosure email list at
InSecure.org, a security resources site. The claimed plot details
reveal key information about the death of two key characters in what is
supposed to be the final Harry Potter book of the best selling series.
According to Insecure.org, since the hacker posted the information
about the Harry Potter ending to one of its archived email lists, its
servers have been straining under a heavy load.
"Our web servers are struggling to cope with the load after a hacker
posted purported Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows spoilers to a
mailing list we archive. We have no idea if the spoilers are true or
not (Scholastic Press refused to say), and reading it could affect your
enjoyment of the book!"
Insecure.org has posted a group on its home page which shows that its
server load has quintupled since the purported Harry Potter information
was posted to its site.
According to a statement from security software company PC Tools,
whether the claimed hack is true is unknown but it is certainly
possible and should be taken seriously.
“Companies are being targeted everyday,” said Simon Clausen, CEO of PC
Tools. “Corporate and personal espionage have been taken to a whole new
level due to the easy accessibility of the building blocks to create
threats. Previously only an experienced hacker would be able to produce
custom threats, but these days any technically savvy individual or even
‘script-kiddies’ can plug the pieces together like Lego and easily make
their own.
“Hackers are regularly using popular events or a newsworthy item to
entice users, with what is usually a piece of fiction,” said Clausen.
News of the alleged hack has produced some degree of skepticism in the
blogosphere because the hacker appears to have a poor command of
English and claims to have performed the hack to spoil the plot for
intending buyers for religious reasons. However, neither of these two
facts would appear to diminish the possibility that an illegal hack
occurred.
The hacker’s claimed plot spoiling details are available here.
David Bass
| For the fourth year in a row, IDC has placed content security provider Websense (NASDAQ: WBSN) at the top of the IDC Worldwide Web Security 2011 –…
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