Hacky Potter? Did a hacker find the ending to the Deathly Hallows?

by Kaitlin | June 21, 2007 at 12:50 pm | 892 views | 2 comments

UPDATE: NowPublic user ricknight has published a very interesting analysis of the Harry Potter hacker.

Beware the ides of Rowling: A few weeks ago JK Rowling warned on her personal website that there would be an online bum rush in the weeks leading up to the book's release. And it seems she was right--an anti-Potter hacker calling himself Gabriel and claiming to have hacked into Bloomsbury books via a simple infected email says he's got the ending of the book...and he's posting it online.

Did Gabriel really find the ending (which I saw accidentally while researching this story)? I, for one, doubt it--wouldn't the Potter books be under a more complex lock and key? Maybe this is just a wild claim from a super-religious nutter--afterall, "Gabriel" called the Potter books "neo-paganism." Or perhaps this is actually a clever marketing ploy by Bloomsbury itself? Whatever the truth, we will find out exactly one month from today.

And if "Gabriel" turns out to be right...there will be no amount of flue powder that could bring him back from where I'll be sending him...

One security company said the attack seemed possible in theory and the availability of hacking kits on the internet meant that it wouldn't have had to have been an expert who carried it out.

"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," said Simon Clausen, chief executive of PC Tools.