Hacker dies days before he was to reveal how to remotely kill pacemaker patients
 

http://rt.com/usa/hacker-pacemaker-barnaby-jack-639/

"Security researcher Barnaby Jack has passed away in San Francisco, only days before a scheduled appearance at a Las Vegas hacker conference where he intended to show how an ordinary pacemaker could be compromised in order to kill a man.

Jack, who previously presented hacks involving ATMs and insulin pumps at the annual Black Hat conference in Vegas, was confirmed dead Friday morning by the San Francisco Medical Examiner?s office, Reuters reported. He passed away Thursday this week, but the office declined to offer any more details at this time.

Jack?s death came one week to the day before he was scheduled to detail one of his most recent exploits in a Black Hat talk called ?Implantable Medical Devices: Hacking Humans.?

?I was intrigued by the fact that these critical life devices communicate wirelessly. I decided to look at pacemakers and ICDs (implantable cardioverter defibrillators) to see if they communicated securely and if it would be possible for an attacker to remotely control these devices,? Jack told Vice last month.

After around six months of research, Jack said he developed a way to hack one of those devices remotely and send it a high-voltage shock from upwards of 50 feet away.

?If the devices can be accessed remotely, there's always a potential for abuse,? he told Vice tech reporter William Alexander.

In a blog post earlier this year, Jack said he was influenced by a recent episode of the television program "Homeland," in which a terrorist remotely hacked the pacemaker of the United States vice president.

?In my professional opinion, the episode was not too far off the mark,? he wrote.

When Alexander asked Jack if a government official outfitted with a pacemaker would be vulnerable to assassination from a hacker, the researcher remarked, ?I wouldn't feel comfortable speculating about such a scenario.?

?Although the threat of a malicious attack to anyone with an implantable device is slim, we want to mitigate these risks no matter how minor,? he wrote on his blog post. At the time, Jack said the vulnerability was being discussed with medical device manufacturers.

?Over the past year, we?ve become increasingly aware of cyber security vulnerabilities in incidents that have been reported to us,? William Maisel, deputy director for science at the FDA?s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, told Reuters. ?Hundreds of medical devices have been affected, involving dozens of manufacturers.?

At previous Black Hat talks, Jack detailed how he emulated a stunt found in the movie Terminator 2 that allowed him to remotely hack an automatic teller machine. In addition to being able to read credit card numbers and PINs inputted by another user, Jack also showed how a USB drive could be implanted in an ATM which would override the machine?s firmware and allow a hacker to take control.

In another presentation, Jack said he could hack insulin pumps to order the machines to deliver lethal doses to patients, in turn killing them.

?We notified the manufacturer of the vulnerability and it will be fixed with the next insulin pump revision,? he told Vice.

Jack?s most recent employer, security firm IOActive, said in a statement, ?Lost but never forgotten our beloved pirate, Barnaby Jack has passed. He was a master hacker and dear friend. Here?s to you Barnes!?

Black Hat is scheduled to begin Wednesday in Las Vegas, with a presentation by NSA Chief Gen. Keith Alexander. It will be immediately followed by the Def Con hacker conference, which will be taking place just down the road. Researchers at Def Con plan to demonstrate various high-profile hacks, including how modern cars can be compromised. "

http://rt.com/usa/hacker-pacemaker-barnaby-jack-639/

Let me guess; big medicine had him offed.

Obviously.

No idea on this one, I'm open to ideas

Sounds like a callous asshole. No loss.

Kill yourself

I'm creating content for your forum so be grateful, sign in as another nick and join in, bring out the Dyna Mo nick :pimp

What a brilliant mind

http://trcs.wikispaces.com/file/view...photos_001.jpg

seems like big medicine would have liked this guy..not wanted him dead

Accidents don't happen. :|

and he conveniently dies...

great homeland episode.

Maybe he had a pacemaker and tried it on himself?

My mothers pacemaker sent/received info at night through a phone modem by her bed. Why would anyone want to fuck with innocent people ???

:2 cents:

like the sick fucks at the Boston marathon? or the 9/11 terrorists? or half the muzzies in Britain? Never underestimate humans. :(

When are you going to stop posting propaganda on this forum?

if he was really going to do that then i'm sure most are happy he is dead, what the hell would you put that info out? He should of shared it with the makers and not dumbasses who will try it at home to see if it works so they can feel smart.
Next they will be hacking cars so when they are doing 80 in traffic they can shut the engine off causing a huge wreck

A lot of whistle-blowers have been mysteriously droppin like flies lately. Michael Hastings was another...

Hits seem much more sophisticated these days...compared to old school mafia days. Ya never know who's in charge.....maybe the Illuminati for all we know.

Yeah! They are so sophisticated, that people on GFY can figure out what they done, without seeing any real evidence.

Makes sense to me!

holy crap, new video just released today of Michael Hastings car practically flying down the road.

there's noway he was doing this on purpose. His car was hacked -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gtRGIcUW_Q

nobody with half a brain would legitimately be going that fast, on such a small road.

could someone tell me how to embed youtube on this friggin site ? should be normal like other sites with the YOUTUBE tags, but I guess not.

This people find the vulnerabilities and expose them so this issues are fixed before some evil motherfucker take advantage of them.

[youtube ] delete all code except the string of numbers and letters that look important [/youtube]

thx dude.

:thumbsup

Defcon tells the world news agencies, before other bad people start taking advantage of security holes. Barnaby Jack shows his ATM jackpotting video after the company fixed the holes.

I don't believe anybody offed him. No telling what happened.

Barnaby Jack RIP...

:stoned

ADG

Bammy will get ya,one way or another

Saw something very similar in a tv show, some guy used a transmitter to kill a dude with a pacemaker remotely. Most likely anyone with good knowledge in physics could figure that out, I don't think it has anything to do with hacking

thats strange.

usually you have all your made up answers ready.

i guess you have started seeing a doctor and taking medication.

Well done :)

just wanted to post this. think the guy wanted to finish his project and was a bit late so died from exhaustion or something like :2 cents: :)

That's gonna be interesting. First year I won't be able to make it :(

:thumbsup :thumbsup

Thats a big explosion for a car. They might need a recall. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23443215

It said right in the article he had been working with the manufacturer to help fix the problem.

most people are shocked to find out that building 7 fell...cant expect them to read an article with actual words in it.

somebody wanted to keep this as a secret

other articles show how ez it is to remotely (wirelessly) hack a car.

your best bet ? don't purchase any cars older than 2005...we're only at the initial starting point of car manufacturers realizing how ez it is to hack their cars.

Sounds like something good finally happened in the world.

why 2005?

Someone who helps point out critical flaws(fatal) in their products to companies dying is a good thing?


Did you read the article at all?

most of the internet enabled ones came after.

This guy ordered the hit...

http://media.cleveland.com/nationwor...0031-large.jpg

You beat me to it.

Call me paranoid...but here it goes.

Too many suspicious deaths lately....labeled "natural cause" bs...

Maybe our govt. has secret weapons in space to cause this crap...

A cancer weapon. (to direct high levels of radiation upon a person in a narrow beam )

A powerful magnetic weapon. (to interrupt heart rhythms to make it seem like a heart attack)

Andrew Breitbart (was about to reveal damaging stuff against obama).....supposedly dies of natural causes.

Lynn Samuels (controversial talk show host) ...... supposedly dies on x-mas eve of natural causes.

Barnaby Jack ......supposedly dies of natural causes.

....those were just off the top of my head. Probably dozens more cases.

One source already saying police have ruled out foul play -

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world...dies-1.1477550

good riddance to the piece of shit

why so many responses like this ?

He was a unique talent, helping companies by showing their product's weaknesses and vulnerabilities.

If he was a bad apple, he'd just keep these knowledges to himself....or quietly sell it in the black market.

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

every day in every city on this planet is a page of obituaries - people die, the majority old but young and middle aged die every day too and they come from every walk of life including 'controversial' journalists, conspiracy kooks and people with connections to shady people, doesn't mean they were murdered.

if a death seems suspicious there are no shortage of people who love to uncover conspiracies, including reputable journalists.

andrew breitbart - hard to believe a middle aged angry fatass dropped dead of a heart attack :1orglaugh

why do we have to wait friggin months to get the slightest amount of info from this case ?

ok, it's gonna take a month or longer for toxicology...that's fine.

But why can't the friggin news / media get better reports detailing exactly what happened right before....instead of cc'ing each others reports.

what was he doing right before....taking a dump, watching tv, exercising ? Why isn't there any of this info anywhere....everything seems so top secret with his death...no details at all. What about his parents / girlfriend....can't the media find them to interview ?

7:45PM seems like an awkward time to find someone dead.