Harry Potter Phishing Attack: Fact or Fiction?
On June 19th a spoiler for the next Rowling book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was posted to the full disclosure mailing list:
http://seclists.org/misc
What is more interesting is how this book was allegedly obtained. The author of the messages claims he launched a phishing attack against Bloomsbury Publishing.
“The attack strategy was the easiest one. The usual milw0rm downloaded exploit delivered by email/click-on-the-link/open-browser/click-on-this-animated-icon/back-connect to some employee of Bloomsbury Publishing, the company that’s behind the Harry crap.”
The claim is that a spear phishing attack was executed against Bloomsbury Publishing staff. Was Bloomsbury Publishing really phished? This telegraph.co.uk story: “Harry Potter ‘hacker’ posts plot on internet” has a quote from a Bloomsbury spokeswoman, “There are lots and lots of rumoured versions of the book (on the internet). We don’t confirm or deny any rumours”
Did the Bloomsburg phishing attack really happen or was it a hoax? Blog.phishme.com doesn’t know but one would think that if this hack really did happen over a month ago, that the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows would be all over bittorrent. I checked a few tracker sites before starting this blog post. All the claims on Demonoid were that the 5 available Deathly Hallows books were either hoaxes or ……..
********** BREAKING NEWS **********
Demonoid has removed all of the hoax torrents and only this one remains:
http://www.demonoid.com/files/details/1252898/13924344/
“I found this on another site, for those of you who simply can’t wait. It only includes the book up to pg.495.
But at least now we can compare the fakes to the real thing.
Enjoy and remember to seed!! ”
This one appears to be someone who has taken digital photos of 495 pages. Now that is someone dedicated to their piracy!
********** END NEWS **********
So it seems that there is still no official full copy on bittorrent but it’s only a matter of time.
In another story by PCmag: Dissecting the Harry Potter ‘Hack’ we read:
“it is conceivable that a successful download-based exploit was launched, according to a member of the hacker community, who asked that his name not be used. He pointed out that hackers have begun to carefully target companies and market segments. A well-crafted attack that uses correct names and titles, and spoofs a sending address from a partner firm, can be highly effective.”
For the record, it’s beyond conceivable, it’s happening now. In the recent incident response projects that we’ve worked the attack vector used to gain a foothold into the organization is a targeted phishing attack. It’s not just a problem for the commercial world either.
Do you think that the DOD is requiring mandatory anti-phishing training because they fear that they might get hacked using this method? Check out this quote from this DOD battles spear phishing article:
“At this point, the true scope of compromise and exploitation is unknown, but likely thousands more users and computers have been, or will be, successfully targeted,” the bulletin states. “
It’s too bad that external penetration testing no longer mimics the ways that attackers are getting into organizations. If you’re responsible for commissioning an external penetration test against your organization, maybe it’s time to do more than full TCP/UDP port scans (*Think social engineering). Today’s myspace generation of attackers don’t even know what UDP is.
-higB
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This is crazy… Who the hell takes all those photos?
And somewhere there must be a book missing, a book that must be able to be traced back to whoevers hands it is that we see!
I think we should call CSI to have those carpet fibers examined. Everytime I watch that show i’m amazed at how robust and accurate their textile database is.
Does somebody knows where we could see all the pictures? I sure want to see them
But Unfortunately, I’m not a member of Demonoid, and I don’t have any invitation
Anyway. I think that lillepalle is right. Somewhere, there’s a book missing… But the places where they stock the books before July 20th are secrets, and there is only some persons (like the guards :P) who know where they are!
Or else the guy who did that invented a whole book… That would be really crazy!
Sorry for the mistakes… I speak french
[...] your hands”. The motto should be repeated by the camera man of those Harry Potter pictures reported on earlier in the week. Looks like a little Exif meta data wasn’t cleaned off the photos… or was [...]
Does somebody knows where we could see all the pictures? I sure want to see them
Thank you very That was very cool Thank you for photos
dhb900
WOW!!
i need to read the book on the computer!!!! not by the book, OH PLEEZZZ!! i love J.K. Rowling’s books THEY ROCCKKKK!!!
please keep writing J.K. Rowling!
saam
sasjd
hello
harry potter rulez!!!!
heya!!!
congratulations!
you win the heart of the people!!
harry potter is so great, i like it!!! the story is so good. everyone like you………… EXCELLENT!!
harry potter it’s so good! i like it very much!!!!!!!!!!!
hi! i really like harry potter its so nice.
nindot kaau doh.. gwapo kaayo si harry potter
congrats sa gabuhat sa harry potter
thank you……..
i like this . but u have to show specified name of books seperately
hy,,,it’s mE!!
i’m so Like this Story…eventhought my EngLlish so Bad..
but, i’sure you know,what i want!!
hikh…hikh…PEACE from INDONESIAN
This sounds really cool my best friend bethany got me hooked on harry potter, so im re doing my room into a harry potter theme. YOU ROCK HERMIONE!
U R SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO CUTE.
U R SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO CUTE HARRY.LUV U LUV U LUV UUUUU
U LOOK’S REALLY NICE SPECIALLY IN ”GOBLET OF FIRE”
U R SUPERB.
WE LUV U
BUBBYE.
I LOVE U TO DANIEL !!!
YOU IS MY IDOL ME
i love u to daniel !!!
you is my idol !!!
i am harry potters biggest ever fan i’v read aqll the books and luv them all sooooo much!!! i luv all the characeters in the films too— their well good. <<<< LUV U HARRY POTTER!!!!
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
hii?daniel I’m hepi from indonesia.I like harry potter because this story is so good.Good LUCK harry.soory i not speak engglish
In first i thouth Harry Potter is a boring book tale. but when I watch the movie Harry Potter and the chamber of secret, now I want to wath all Harry Potter movies. Although there are many side comments about the author of the book. But that movie is really great. I am a Filipino9.
ilove you harry
i love harry potter so much i cryed when we had to return the goblet of fire. i think hermoine is so cute!!
townsend
6-23-09
8:24 P.M.
I LOVE YOU
Im just on the second book of Harry Potter and I nearly am at
the third book.Ive got to go now.
Harry potter is the best movie in the world
harry potter i`m watching it now