BBC News, 26
July 2013
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| Barnaby Jack rose to fame after he demonstrated how to hack a cash machine |
Barnaby
Jack died on Thursday, the city's medical examiner's office told Reuters, but
did not give more details.
He had been
due to give a presentation into medical device vulnerabilities at the Black Hat
security conference in Las Vegas taking place next week.
He had said
one technique could kill a man from 30 feet (nine metres) away.
IOActive,
the security firm at which Mr Jack was director of embedded devices, said it
was preparing a statement.
In a tweet,
the company said: "Lost but never forgotten our beloved pirate, Barnaby
Jack has passed."
His sister
Amberleigh Jack, who lives in New Zealand, told Reuters news agency he was 35.
Mr Jack
became one of the most famous hackers on the planet after a 2010 demonstration
in which he hacked a cashpoint, making it give out money. The technique was
dubbed "Jackpotting".
'Social
media flood'
More
recently, he emerged as a leading expert in the weaknesses that could be found
in medical technology.
Last year,
he told the BBC about how he had discovered flaws in widely-used insulin pumps
which allowed him to compromise the devices.
The hack
made it possible to control them and administer a fatal level of insulin, Mr
Jack said.
"My
purpose was not to allow anyone to be harmed by this because it is not easy to
reproduce," he told the BBC during an interview in April 2012.
"But
hopefully it will promote some change in these companies and get some
meaningful security in these devices."
Mr Jack's
expertise and vivid demonstrations of his knowledge at events like Black Hat
earned him the respect of many security professionals.
Amberleigh
Jack thanked those who have been posting messages of sympathy online.
"So
humbled by the social media flood of people that loved @barnaby_jack," she
tweeted.
"Thank
you all so much for your kind words."
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