Coroner Rules Barnaby Jack Was Killed By A Drug Overdose

Back in July I wrote about the death of Barnaby Jack, world renowned computer hacker. Jack was an elite among hackers and was due to speak at the Black Hat Event in Las Vegas the week that he died.

He found fame when he publicly demonstrated an ATM machine causing it to give out random amounts of money in a technique that became known as ‘jackpotting’

Highly respected in computer circles he had discovered that certain medical devices could be altered by remote. Pace makers, and intravenous drug pumps in particular were giving him cause for concern.

He died on July 25th and was due to present his findings in a talk entitled “Implantable Medical Devices: Hacking Humans” on August 1st. He was going to give a demonstration of how he could disrupt medical devices from over thirty feet away from the target.

The San Fransisco Medical Examiners office has taken almost six months to issue a statement regarding his death, giving the cause as an ‘accidental’ drug overdose involving heroin, cocaine and prescription drugs. Toxicology reports usually take six weeks to come through.  Why the delay?

The theme of his presentation was the disruption of wireless technology with an emphasis on medical devices, but he was also heavily into security in all its forms. It makes you wonder what other failings he would have found in other systems had he lived.

Future projects could have included how to adversely affect:

• The ‘WiFi crackers’ used on surveillance drones
• The ability of the NSA to hijack WiFi from up to eight miles away
• The ability to interfere with cars connected to WiFi
• The vulnerability of GPS WiFi positioning systems

There are hundred of thousands of applications that operate on WiFi, either wholely or in part, and Jack knew the vulnerabilities within the systems. Once you have cracked how to interfere with, alter, or nullify WiFi signals you pretty much can do anything you like. Can you imagine if such information was in the public domain?

Andrew Breitbart  February 1 1969-March 1 2012

Michael Hastings  January 28 1980-June 18 2013

Barnaby Jack  November 22 1977-July 25 2013