Famed hacker Barnaby Jack dies a week before hacking convention

Barnaby Jack, a celebrated computer hacker who forced bank ATMs to spit out cash and sparked safety improvements in medical devices, died in SanFrancisco, a week before he was due to make a high-profile presentation at a hacking conference.

The New Zealand-born Jack, 35, was found dead on Thursday evening by "a loved one" at an apartment in San Francisco's NobHill neighborhood, according to a police spokesman. He would not say what caused Jack's death but said police had ruled out foulplay.

The San Francisco Medical Examiner's Office said it was conducting an autopsy, although it could be a month before the cause of death is determined.

Jack was one of the world's most prominent "white hat" hackers - those who use their technical skills to find security holes before criminals can exploit them.

His genius was finding bugs in the tiny computers embedded in equipment, such as medical devices and cash machines. He often received standing ovations at conferences for his creativity and showmanship while his research forced equipment makers to fix bugs in their software.

Jack had planned to demonstrate his techniques to hack into pacemakers and implanted defibrillators at the Black Hat hackers convention in Las Vegas next Thursday. He told Reuters last week that he could kill a man from 30 feet (nine meters) away by attacking an implanted heart device.

"He was passionate about finding security bugs before thebad guys," said long time security industry executive Stuart McClure, who gave Jack one of his first jobs and also had worked with him at Intel Inc's McAfee, a computer security company.

"He was one of those people who was put on this earth to find vulnerabilities that can be exploited in a malicious way tohurt people," McClure said.

Jack became one of the world's most famous hackers after a 2010 demonstration of "Jackpotting" - getting ATMs to spew outbills.A clip of his presentation has been viewed more than 2.6 million times on YouTube.

Two years ago, Jack turned his attention to medical devices,while working on a team at McAfee that engineered methods for attacking insulin pumps. Their research prompted medical device maker Medtronic Inc to revamp the way it designs itsproducts. The US government also noticed Jack's work.

"The work that Barnaby Jack and others have done tohighlight some of these vulnerabilities has contributedimportantly to progress in the field," said William Maisel,deputy director for science at the Food and DrugAdministration's Center for Devices and Radiological Health.

Jack's passion for hacking sometimes got him into trouble.

'BELOVED PIRATE'

Jack's most recent employer, the cyber security consulting firm IOActive Inc, said on its Twitter account: "Lost but never forgotten our beloved pirate, Barnaby Jack has passed."

Jack had been scheduled to present his research on heartdevices at Black Hat on Aug. 1. Last week, Jack told Reuters he had devised a way to hack into a wireless communications system that linked implanted pacemakers and defibrillators with bed side monitors that gather information about their operations.

"I'm sure there could be lethal consequences," Jack said ina phone interview.

He declined to name the manufacturer of the device but saidhe was working with that company to figure out how to prevent malicious attacks on heart patients.

Jack's sudden death drew responses from the hacking community reminiscent of those that followed the suicide ofhacker activist Aaron Swartz in January.

Dan Kaminsky, a well-known hacker, described the death as a tragedy. "Barnaby was one of the most creative, energetic,diverse researchers in our field," he said.

"You'll be missed, bro," tweeted another well-known hackerDino Dai Zovi.

Jack's sister, Amberleigh Jack, who lives in New Zealand, told Reuters her brother was 35 years old. She declined to comment further, saying she needed time to grieve.

Black Hat said that it will not replace Jack's session at the conference, saying the hour would be left vacant for conference attendees to commemorate his life and work.

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