Famed ATM Hacker Barnaby Jack Dies Days Before Black Hat Conference

wiredmikey writes "A shocking and sad day today in the security industry. Well known hacker Barnaby Jack has passed away, sending a shock through the security community. Jack, a famed white hat hacker, was scheduled to present at the Black Hat conference on Tuesday, and present research on vulnerabilities in implantable medical devices. Shocked reactions hit the Twittersphere on Friday, as many in the industry conveyed their condolences, shock, and even disbelief, hoping new of the death was some sort of hoax. 'I just wake up and heard this, really sad, I can't believe this, no words,' Cesar Cerrudo, CTO, IOActive Labs, said in an email to SecurityWeek. Barnaby Jack is probably best known for his ATM hacking demonstrations, which he liked to refer as 'Jackpotting,' and performed at a few conferences, including a demonstration at Black Hat 2010 that got media attention around the world. The San Francisco Medical Examiner's office told Reuters that Jack had died in San Francisco on Thursday, but did not provide additional details."

Re:Myes, myes...

[Dputiger]

It doesn't sound suspicious at all if you think about it. It takes an autopsy to determine cause of death, and that takes a few days at least.

Re:Myes, myes...

[Dunbal]

It could be. Stress. Stress releases cortisol and increases vascular tone through a higher baseline of catecholamines (epinephrine, norepinephrine) which leads to higher blood pressure. This puts more work on the heart since it has to increase its output to compensate for the increased resistance to blood flow. Stress can very well be a factor that causes a catastrophic event like this to happen. Usually when someone dies suddenly, it's a circulatory problem - stroke, heart attack, aneurysm, thrombosis. All of these have increased probabilities of happening when someone is under stress. Yeah, I'm a doctor, too - which is why I got so lucky and was standing in the middle of an ER when it happened to me :)