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Hacker Barnaby Jack has died
- mwally 13y agoTo many researchers are turning up dead lately.
- zenith2037 13y agoConspiracy theories go go go!
- weego 13y agoToo many? How many have turned up dead?
- pyre 13y agoOne is too many?
- PhasmaFelis 13y agoOne is not "researchers."
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- jonursenbach 13y agoCitation Required
- ferdo 13y ago"But certainly any threats, no matter how minor, need to be eliminated.” -Barnaby Jack
- vxxzy 13y agoIsn't it sad that since the NSA revelations anything is really "on the table" for our imaginations? Nothing seems too far-fetched these days...
- frou_dh 13y agoI know it's a hot topic, but the Snowden leak is hardly the genesis of distrust.
- jetti 13y agoFor me, it is more the case of Michael Hastings[1] that would bring foul play from a government agent rather than the Snowden case. [1]http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/06/24/journalist-michael-hastings-sends-chilling-e-mail-to-colleagues-before-death/ http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/06/24/journalist-michael-hast...
- 00rion 13y agoIndeed. I can't believe more people don't know about this.
- lawnchair_larry 13y agoI can't believe you crazies found HN.
- codex 13y agoThe U.S. mortality rate is 0.008 per year. That means that in any gathering of 100 people (roughly the number of speakers at Black Hat), there is a 55% chance that at least one will die in the year before the event and a 6.5% chance they would die one month before the event. Over ten years of conferences, the odds that someone would die within one month of speaking is 49%. The under-40 crowd doesn't really appreciate this since death predominantly affects older people.
- conroe64 13y ago
- JonSkeptic 13y agoI find the title of this article to be unsettling. The title almost makes it sound like he died to avoid going to the conference. While I guess that feeds into the much beloved past time of conspiracy theory, I can't help but think it could have been worded significantly better.
- cyanbane 13y agoWhen I originally saw this I posted it with the title as it was on the article. The article itself has been updated with a lot more information than was originally on there and also the title has changed.
- dbloom 13y agoBarnaby Jack "jackpotting" an ATM at BlackHat USA 2010: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-dS4UFomv0&t=5m47s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-dS4UFomv0&t=5m47s
- tptacek 13y agoIn the last couple years he'd become (justifiably) famous for stunt hacks like this, but I think it's important to remember that the guy was the genuine article, genuinely talented, old school in the truest sense. Here's I think a better starting point for his work. Read it on the mailing list, like we all did: http://marc.info/?l=vuln-dev&m=106331197530352&w=2 http://marc.info/?l=vuln-dev&m=106331197530352&w=2
- lawnchair_larry 13y agohttp://www.phrack.org/issues.html?issue=55&id=15 http://www.phrack.org/issues.html?issue=55&id=15
- tptacek 13y agoBarnaby Jack was part of the soul of the software security community. He had so many friends. Please today remember that he was a real human being, and that he had friends who might read HN.
- eksith 13y agoIndeed. It's rather tasteless and crass to revert to snark and conspiracies on this thread.
- joe_the_user 13y agoWhether conspiracy theories are warranted or not, it would be an error of logic to imply snark and conspiracy are equivalent.
- eksith 13y agoNo one is suggesting that they are equivalent; they're equally undesirable. Snark is, however, the typical response seen here to the also undesirable conspiracy theory.
- mehmehshoe 13y agoExactly. I mentioned on another submission, that got killed, that it would be a great tribute to the man if one of his friends/associates that new his work well could fill in and give his presentation at the conference. With so little time, I now think that might be unreasonable. Maybe use the time slot to hand out the slides, raise a toast and share some stories. The subject of his talk is incredibly important and should be distributed. After minor digging, here is his blog about medical device hacking vs. the hollywood version: http://blog.ioactive.com/2013/02/broken-hearts-how-plausible-was.html http://blog.ioactive.com/2013/02/broken-hearts-how-plausible... Interesting tidbit from the blog-The CEO's father has a pacemaker.
- mehmehshoe 13y agoBlackhat will leave his slot open to commemorate. https://www.blackhat.com/latestintel/07262013-remembering-barnaby-jack.html https://www.blackhat.com/latestintel/07262013-remembering-ba...
- kayoone 13y agoBut why ? Didnt know anything about him but he looks like 35 years old. An Accident ? Something else ? All these young tech people dieing lately is a bit unsettling.
- Goladus 13y agoCause of death, if it is known, is probably being withheld for family privacy reasons.
- GigabyteCoin 13y agoLife is fragile. I had a friend of mine drop dead of a heart attack at the ripe old age of 27.
- nikster 13y agoA friend of mine died from pneumonia at 30. He went to bed not feeling well and never woke up.
- michaelochurch 13y agoAll these young tech people dieing lately is a bit unsettling. It's a big world. There are thousands of people (many of whom most of us haven't heard of, but a few have) who would get an HN mention if they died, and 20- to 40-year-old people still have a ~0.1% per year death rate. It's nothing unusual. The Internet just makes people more attuned to it. If you went to a 1000-person high school, you probably only lost two classmates in your whole time and it was a big deal. Now, however, there are so many interesting people in the (amorphously defined) tech community that, yes, interesting young people are going to die all the time.
- voltagex_ 13y agoThere is information on Twitter that a short statement will be released, but the family needs some privacy, time and space.
- munin 13y agoHacker News, a real person with real friends and a real family has died. Can you please not make this about your paranoid NSA delusions for at least one day?
- lawnchair_larry 13y agoPlease do not make comments about conspiracy theories. This event is not suspicious.
- marze 13y agoCitation?
- mililani 13y agoUntil there is a cause of death from a thorough autopsy, I think it's too early to say whether this is suspicious or not. I can't believe you are being upvoted for saying this.
- marshray 13y agoRussia Today certainly knows how to state it for maximum effect: "Hacker dies days before he was to reveal how to remotely kill pacemaker patients" http://rt.com/usa/hacker-pacemaker-barnaby-jack-639/ http://rt.com/usa/hacker-pacemaker-barnaby-jack-639/ Edit: It seems very relevant to keep in mind that this is not the first time someone (or even Jack in particular) had demoed remote kill switch functionality for human beings. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-29/mcafee-hacker-says-medtronic-insulin-pumps-vulnerable-to-attack.html http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-29/mcafee-hacker-says-...
- GigabyteCoin 13y agoThe kind of thing they're referring to is commonplace in Russia, unfortunately, so you can't exactly blame them for thinking that: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_journalists_killed_in_Russia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_journalists_killed_in_R...
- lawnchair_larry 13y ago> I can't believe you are being upvoted for saying this. Perhaps consider that many posters and readers here knew him in person.
- hfsktr 13y agoThe original link isn't working for me but this appears to be the same: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/26/net-us-hacker-death-idUSBRE96P0K120130726 http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/26/net-us-hacker-deat...
- rdudekul 13y agoTry this one: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-26/barnaby-jack-computer-hacker-dead-at-36.html http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-26/barnaby-jack-comput...
- hfsktr 13y agoI thought the comments on the link I gave were bad but those are just as bad. I mean the 'omg hacker means evil and he deserved it!' stuff...at least the tinfoil hats make a bit of sense.
- ferdo 13y agoThe article is 404?
- GigabyteCoin 13y agoNot anymore it's not. Reuters just does that from time to time. I think it's similar to reddit's "uh oh you broke reddit" response, just a bit less user friendly.
- anateus 13y agoI had only met him in person once, but he was clearly a great human being. I'll remember the drinks we shared.
- benackles 13y agoThe correct link to the Reuters article is http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/26/net-us-hacker-death-idUSBRE96P0K120130726 http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/26/net-us-hacker-deat...
- ferdo 13y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Silkwood http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Silkwood
- anthonyarroyo 13y agoAs someone who has a defibrillator with remote-access capabilities, I'm thankful that Jack was trying to bring this vulnerability to light.
- tareqak 13y agoBBC article here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23467411 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23467411
- hendler 13y agoCorrected Link http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/27/hacker-death-idUSL1N0FW0HW20130727 http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/27/hacker-death-idUSL...