An elite hacker who was due to demonstrate how heart implants could be hacked has died unexpectedly in San Francisco. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23467411  Barnaby Jack died on Thursday, the city’s medical examiner’s office told Reuters, but did not give more details.  He had been due to give a presentation into medical device vulnerabilities at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas taking place next week.

He had said one technique could kill a man from 30 feet (nine metres) away.

Mr Jack became one of the most famous hackers on the planet after a 2010 demonstration in which he hacked a cashpoint, making it give out money. The technique was dubbed “Jackpotting”.

More recently, he emerged as a leading expert in the weaknesses that could be found in medical technology.

Last year, he told the BBC about how he had discovered flaws in widely-used insulin pumps which allowed him to compromise the devices.

The hack made it possible to control them and administer a fatal level of insulin, Mr Jack said.

Mr Jack’s expertise and vivid demonstrations of his knowledge at events like Black Hat earned him the respect of many security professionals.