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'Jackpotting' hacker Barnaby Jack dies
Posted:
Fri Jul 26, 2013 1:01 pmby NaturalMystik
Best known for 2010 demo of technique forcing ATMs to spit out cash.
Well-known hacker Barnaby Jack has died in San Francisco, a week before he was due to show off techniques for attacking implanted heart devices that he said could kill a man from 30 feet away.
The San Francisco Medical Examiner's office said he died in the city on Thursday. It gave no details.
Jack, a security expert, became one of the most famous hackers on the planet after a 2010 demonstration in which he forced ATMs to spit out cash, dubbed "Jackpotting."
The hacking community expressed shock as the news of his death spread via Twitter early on Friday. Jack was due to appear at the Black Hat hacking convention in San Francisco next week, demonstrating how he could attack heart devices.
"Wow ... Speechless," Tweeted mobile phone hacker Tyler Shields.
Jack's most recent employer, the cyber security consulting firm IOActive Inc, said in a Tweet: "Lost but never forgotten our beloved pirate, Barnaby Jack has passed."
Jack had served as IOActive's director of embedded device security.
Jack's genius was finding bugs in the tiny computers that are embedded in equipment such as medical devices and banking machines. He received standing ovations at hacking conventions for his creativity and showmanship.
"You grimy bastard. I was just talking up about your awesome work last night," Tweeted Dino Dai Zovi, a hacker known for his skill at finding bugs in Apple products. "You'll be missed, bro."
Friends and fans alike Tweeted memorials to Jack's Twitter handle, @barnaby_jack.
Dan Kaminsky, an expert in Internet security, Tweeted that he had hoped the news of Jack's death was a prank: "God, the stories. Nobody caused such hilarious trouble like @barnaby_jack."
Re: 'Jackpotting' hacker Barnaby Jack dies
Posted:
Fri Jul 26, 2013 4:49 pmby DrEvil
Damn, that sucks!
Not going to speculate on cause of death since I have no idea, but he did have expertise in an area that makes security experts lose sleep. You can't patch hardware. In many cases, if they find a bug in embedded systems, it's just too expensive to fix it ("You want to shut down our oil-refinery for 24 hours so you can replace one chip you say?"), so the bug is quietly left there, and everyone just ignores it, hoping no one else finds it.
Re: 'Jackpotting' hacker Barnaby Jack dies
Posted:
Fri Jul 26, 2013 4:56 pmby NaturalMystik
Yeah exactly... Seems to me that anyone with the power to make someone's augmented heart go boom from 30ft and can make money fly out of ATMs, may well be a ripe target for a suspicious death.
Re: 'Jackpotting' hacker Barnaby Jack dies
Posted:
Fri Jul 26, 2013 5:14 pmby Wombaticus Rex
Absolutely. Huge strategic imperative to keep 0 Day Exploits out of the public domain.
Also, an increasingly huge business argument for doing so, what with Endgame Systems leading the way.
Re: 'Jackpotting' hacker Barnaby Jack dies
Posted:
Fri Jul 26, 2013 6:06 pmby Gashweir
Zero day exploits in general, and this heart implant attack in specific. There are doubtless agencies that want to prevent this technique from entering the public domain in order to prevent it's use, and less savory agencies that are trying to keep their wetwork techniques proprietary, and secret so they are beyond belief to most American's except for the crazy grass knoll people, who no one with any sense believes anyway.
Re: 'Jackpotting' hacker Barnaby Jack dies
Posted:
Fri Jul 26, 2013 8:11 pmby DrEvil
One more thing: This guy was probably more than qualified to find back doors built into hardware from say, Cisco, as mandated by the NSA.
Re: 'Jackpotting' hacker Barnaby Jack dies
Posted:
Sat Jul 27, 2013 7:35 pmby Nordic
NaturalMystik ยป Fri Jul 26, 2013 3:56 pm wrote:Yeah exactly... Seems to me that anyone with the power to make someone's augmented heart go boom from 30ft and can make money fly out of ATMs, may well be a ripe target for a suspicious death.
You have no respect for authority. Haven't they already said there's nothing to see here, folks?
Re: 'Jackpotting' hacker Barnaby Jack dies
Posted:
Sun Jul 28, 2013 3:29 pmby Seamus OBlimey
Medical Industrial Complex Demonstrates Ability to Hack Hacker?
In his own words: Confessions of a cyber warrior??
Re: 'Jackpotting' hacker Barnaby Jack dies
Posted:
Sun Jul 28, 2013 4:19 pmby Iamwhomiam
I can only imagine how many were anxiously awaiting the reveal. I bet dozens already had their tickets to Cheneyland.
Re: 'Jackpotting' hacker Barnaby Jack dies
Posted:
Sun Jul 28, 2013 4:37 pmby seemslikeadream
so someone is really comtrolling Cheney?