Computer hacker and security expert Barnaby Jack, 35, was found dead last Thursday night, July 25, in his apartment at San Francisco's Nob Hill neighborhood with the cause of death still unknown. A police spokesperson revealed that foul play was already ruled out on the "white hat" hacker's death 1 week before a scheduled high-profile demonstration at a hacking conference in Las Vegas.

Last 2010, Barnaby Jack's hacking skill became well-known after a live presentation on how he could deplete the entire cash stored in an Automated Teller Machine (ATM). Mr Jack continued with his genius work in finding bugs in minute computers embedded in equipment like medical devices and cash machines then conserve the systems' integrity before the criminals could take advantage.

"He was passionate about finding security bugs before the bad guys," stated longtime security industry executive, Stuart McClure. He gave Mr Jack one of his first jobs and worked with him as well at Intel Corp's computer security company, McAfee.

During conferences, the audience often gave Barnaby Jack a standing ovation for his creative work and showmanship as his research urged the equipment manufacturers to repair their software bugs. Listed below are 5 things to know about the late computer hacker and programmer, Barnaby Jack:

1. He was born Barnaby Michael Douglas Jack on November 22, 1977 in Auckland, New Zealand to parents Michael and Sammi Jack and showed interest and fascination with computers since childhood. Mr Jack was survived by his mother, sister Amberleigh and girlfriend Layne Cross.

2. At 21, Jack worked as a research engineer in the computer security software business at Network Associates, Foundstone and eEye Digital Security and then in June 2010, he became the director of research at IOActive. At the time of his death, Mr Jack was the director of embedded device security.

3. Mr Jack experienced a hacking trouble back in 2010. Fellow hacker Tiffany Strauchs Rad shared that Mr Jack had the hotel manager's permission at a casino in Abu Dhabi to hack the dispensing machine but security interfered. "It turned out the hotel did not actually own the gold machine and the American Embassy had to be called in to help resolve the misunderstanding," Ms Rad stated.

4. The U.S. government recognized Mr Jack's hacking work. "The work that Barnaby Jack and others have done to highlight some of these vulnerabilities has contributed importantly to progress in the field," stated William Maisel, the deputy director for science at the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Devices and Radiological Health.

5. Last 2011, Mr Jack shifted his hacking attention to medical equipments while working with a McAfee team that engineered techniques for insulin pumps. The conducted research encouraged the medical device manufacturer Medtronic Inc to renew their products' designs.

Mr Jack was scheduled to exhibit his methods to hack into pacemakers and implanted defibrillators at the Black Hat hackers convention on August 1. He even revealed to Reuters that he could attack and kill a person 30 feet away with the implanted device.

The hacking community expressed their grief over Barnaby Jack's unexpected death. "Lost but never forgotten our beloved pirate, Barnaby Jack has passed," cybersecurity consulting firm IOActive Inc posted on Twitter.

Dan Kaminsky, another well-known hacker, described Mr Jack's death as a tragedy. "Barnaby was one of the most creative, energetic, diverse researchers in our field," Mr Kaminsky stated. The Black Hat hackers convention stated that Mr Jack's session at the conference will not be replaced but would be left vacant for the attendees to commemorate the hacker's life and impressive work.

RELATED STORIES
Gold Twitter Intel