Harry Potter Hacked?

June 21, 2007
By Kimberly Maul

A hacker who goes by the name of Gabriel claims he obtained a digital copy of the manuscript for J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and has posted plot details online, Reuters reported. The man claims he was able to hack into the computer system at Bloomsbury, the publisher of the book.

"We make this spoiler to make reading of the upcoming book useless and boring," he wrote on the website. But, of course, the publisher is keeping mum about the truth behind the spoilers.

"There is a lot of junk flying around," said Kyle Good, a spokesman for Scholastic, the U.S. distributor of the Harry Potter books, according to Reuters. "Consider this one more theory." Bloomsbury declined to comment.

"We've had hypes like this on the last couple of Harry Potter books," David Perry, a spokesman for computer security company Trend Micro, told Reuters. "There is a very high level of spurious information in the hacker world." But whether or not readers believe Gabriel, there is only one way to find out if he is right. And that won't happen until July 21.