The details, which he said he obtained by sending an infected email to a member of staff at Bloomsbury Publishing, contain information about the way in which two of the main protagonists die.

The hacker, who attacks what he calls "neo-paganism", uses the name Gabriel and claims his motivation is to "protect you and your families".

"The attack strategy was the easiest one. The usual milw0rm downloaded exploit delivered by mail/ 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 posting reads.

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.

Bloomsbury Publishing has so far made no comment on the matter.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is due to go on sale on 21 July.

www.bloomsbury.com/harrypotter

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