Hackers' Mysterious Death- The Barnaby Jack Story

When the acclaimed television drama series Homeland climaxed with a devious plot by terrorists to kill America’s vice-president by hacking into his electronic pacemaker, critics scoffed at the ludicrousness of the idea.Show more

But the outrageous storyline was thought credible by many in the world of computer security.

Among those was the New Zealand-born computer hacker Barnaby Jack.

The 35-year-old — who, unlike many in the business, used his skills ‘ethically’ — had spent his career demonstrating the dangers posed by unscrupulous hackers combined with computer manufacturers’ failure to install proper safety devices on equipment.

Jack thought it highly plausible that a terrorist could hack into someone’s pacemaker and speed up their heartbeat until it killed them.

He also believed it was possible to infect the pacemaker companies’ servers with a bug that would spread through their systems like a virus.

‘We are potentially looking at a “worm” with the ability to commit mass murder,’ he said. ‘It’s kind of scary.’ Jack certainly knew what he was talking about — having become famous after demonstrating how he could sabotage cash machines and make them dispense large sums of money (a trick he called ‘Jackpotting’) by hacking into a bank’s computer system.

Another stunt was to reveal how a diabetic’s insulin pump — which is designed to deliver insulin to the body day and night — could be hacked from 300ft away, so it could dispense a fatal dose.

Jack, who had been obsessed with computers since childhood, emigrated to the U.S. at the age of 21 and joined a firm specialising in computer security issues.

In recent years, he had developed a specific interest in what is known as ‘embedded’ technology, the hardware and software built into everyday objects such as cars, banking systems, home appliances and medical devices.

He was preparing to demonstrate his work two days ago at a major computer-hacking convention in Las Vegas.

In an address to the Black Hat convention titled ‘Implantable medical devices: hacking humans’, Jack was due to show an audience of hackers and cyber security experts at Caesar’s Palace how he could hack into devices such as pacemakers and defibrillators.

He planned to show how, using a wireless transmitter, he could trigger a deadly power surge and kill someone from up to 50ft away.

A pacemaker is a small battery-powered device implanted in the chest, which regulates the beating of the heart by sending regular electrical pulses to the heart muscles. Modern versions are controlled from small external computers.

Famous pacemaker wearers include Sir Elton John, Sir David Attenborough, former U.S.

vice-president Dick Cheney and former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt.

More than 500,000 have been fitted to patients in Britain, but it was in the U.S. — where nearly five million people use pacemakers and defibrillators — that Jack’s stunt was regarded as a potentially seismic revelation.

However, he was never to give the demonstration. A week beforehand, Jack was found dead in his flat in the San Francisco neighbourhood of Nob Hill. His body was believed to have been found by his girlfriend, Layne Cross, a 31-year-old model. According to friends, he was found dead in bed.

To say his sudden death remains shrouded in mystery is putting it mildly.

Predictably, for someone who worked in such a shadowy world, there have been countless theories about how he was killed. Hackers are a suspicious bunch who have become even more paranoid since the U.S government’s efforts to silence whistleblowers such as ex-soldier Bradley Manning (who faces jail for leaking secret government cables to WikiLeaks).

The absence of even the most basic details about Barnaby Jack’s untimely death has ignited a firestorm of speculation that foul play could be involved.