Prominent Medical Device Hacker Dies from Mysterious Causes

World-famous hacker Barnaby Jack has died and, as of now, the San Francisco medical examiner's office declined to provide further details.

Jack was originally scheduled to give a presentation on vulnerabilities of implantable medical devices. The presentation was scheduled to be part of the Black Hat conference held in Las Vegas.

Jack's rise to fame came after he revealed a specialized method for hacking ATM machines. In 2010, Jack demonstrated his technique on an ATM, causing it to dispense "free money." In his latest presentation, Jack planned to reveal a technique that could potentially kill a person with a medical implant from 30 feet.

In comments made last year, Jack told BBC reporters that many common insulin pumps have a vulnerability that could allow them to be compromised by a third party. During an interview last year, Jack stated, "My purpose was not to allow anyone to be harmed by this because it is not easy to reproduce. But hopefully it will promote some change in these companies and get some meaningful security in these devices."For more, read the MPMN piece titled "The Enduring Influence of Device Hacker Barnaby Jack."