Latest Harry Potter ending revealed by hacker?

Stan Beer
Sunday, 24 June 2007 04:23

Your IT - Home IT

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.