Tsutomu Shimomura

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Tsutomu Shimomura
Born (1964-10-23) October 23, 1964 (age 59)
Computer programmer, physicist
Known forCatching Kevin Mitnick

Tsutomu Shimomura (下村 努, Shimomura Tsutomu, born October 23, 1964) is a Japanese-born

hacker Kevin Mitnick. Takedown, his 1996 book on the subject with journalist John Markoff, was later adapted for the screen in Track Down
in 2000.

Shimomura was a founder of semiconductor company Neofocal Systems, and was CEO and CTO until 2016.

Biography

Born in Japan, Shimomura is the son of Osamu Shimomura, winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, and attended Princeton High School.[1]

At

lattice gas automata
.

In 1989, he became a research scientist in computational physics at the University of California, San Diego, and senior fellow at the San Diego Supercomputer Center. Shimomura also became a noted computer security expert, working for the National Security Agency.

In 1992, he testified before Congress on issues regarding the privacy and security (or lack thereof) on

cellular telephones. Author Bruce Sterling described his first meeting with Shimomura in the documentary Freedom Downtime
:

It was in front of Congress, and I was testifying to a Congressional subcommittee. And here was this guy in sandals and, like, ragged-ass cutoffs, and the rest of us were done up in ties [...] giving our best sort of 'yes, we're in front of Congress' thing and Shimomura is there in this surfer gear.

He is best known for events in 1995, when he assisted with tracking down the computer hacker

Takedown, about the pursuit, and the book was later adapted into a movie with a very similar name, Track Down
. Shimomura, himself, appeared in a brief cameo in the movie.

Shimomura worked for Sun Microsystems during the late 1990s.

Shimomura was a founder of privately held fabless semiconductor company Neofocal Systems, and was CEO and CTO until 2016.[2][3]

Criticism

Takedown.[4] In his book, Littman made allegations of journalistic impropriety against Markoff and questioned the legality of Shimomura's involvement in the matter, as well as suggesting that many parts of Takedown were fabricated by its authors for self-serving purposes.[5][6] Mitnick's autobiography, Ghost in the Wires, further expands on concerns that Shimomura's involvement in the case was both unethical and illegal.[6]

Writing credits

References

  1. ^ Week 10: "Hacking", North Carolina State University. Accessed January 2, 2022. "Shimomura was born in 1964 in Nagoya, Japan.... He got into an antiestablishment group at Princeton High School and got expelled for it, even though he had won a local math/science contest."
  2. ^ LED Japan Conference, October 2013 Archived 2013-10-31 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ "Led by computer whiz Tsutomu Shimomura, Neofocal raises $9M...", Jan 23 2015, geekwire.com
  4. ^ a b Jonathan Littman. The Fugitive Game: Online with Kevin Mitnick
  5. ^ a b Fost, Dan (May 4, 2000). "Movie About Notorious Hacker Inspires a Tangle of Suits and Subplots". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2007-04-24.
  6. ^
    ISBN 978-0-316-03770-9

External links
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