Of the thousands of pages in the Harry Potter books, only one sentence ever really seemed to relate to the on-line world.   One of the smarter parents in the series admonishes his daughter: ”Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can’t see where it keeps its brain”

And, sure enough, then comes this.

Security researcher Ken Munro demonstrates to BBC News that he can easily hack into a children’s toy and control it.

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-31059893

The toy, a doll, is meant to be interactive and just adorable.  But in the spirit of the late Barnaby Jack combined with the menace of a Chucky doll, Munro shows how he can connect to the toy and make it say whatever it wants.

Like other white hat hacks, this one looks like it will lead to an upgrade to the doll’s app that will allow parents to control what connects to the doll.  To paraphrase J.K. Rowling: if it can talk back, make sure you can confrim who it actually is.