Tsutomu Shimomura was preparing for a ski trip when things started to go terribly wrong.
He received an alert that his computer had been hacked. Important software to control cell phones
and internet security tools had been stolen. Shimomura had no idea what the hacker wanted,
or would do with the stolen information, but he knew it was going to be bad.
Shimomura booked the next flight home to San Diego to start an investigation
into the hacker who had compromised his system. The software he stole could throw
cell phone companies and corporations into chaos. It was December of 1994,
and by the following year, the FBI would be breaking down a door to a Raleigh,
North Carolina apartment only to find a surprise waiting for them in the hacker’s lair.
Kevin Mitnick was this hacker, and the mistake that would lead to his capture
was stealing from Tsutomu Shimomura. Mitnick had used various tactics to hack into personal emails,
DMV records, corporate accounts, and even the FBI database. He had access to information
that was potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the right buyer.
This was enough for the feds to want him bad. The only problem was: they couldn’t find him.
Shimomura was a hacker as well except he used his powers for good. Shimomura was a computational
physicist. Whenever he found a vulnerability in someone’s software he would alert the company
instead of taking advantage of it. After patching the vulnerabilities in his own system, Shimomura
went on a manhunt for the person responsible for the infiltration. This would lead to a
chase through the internet, across cell phone networks, and eventually into the real world.
Shimomura began thinking about who could have hacked into his system and how.
The following month some of his stolen software was tracked down to an online server called The
Well. The programs were stored in an account that was almost never used,
and therefore, no one had taken notice of it until now.
Unfortunately, once Shimomura discovered the location of the software, he also discovered
the nefarious purpose it was being used for. The hacker who had stolen his programs was
using it to hack into computers of big name corporations like Motorola, Apple, Qualcomm,
and several others. It seemed this cyber criminal wasn't a programmer themselves,
and that was why they needed Shimomura’s software to hack into these companies' computers.
After about a week of surveillance and tracking the movement of the hacker,
Shimomura uncovered their identity. Kevin Mitnick was
the one who had stolen his software and was using it to wreak havoc.
Mitnick was unique in the hacker community. He was well known for pulling off jobs where he
stole massive amounts of data, but how he did it was different from most hackers. Instead of only
infiltrating a system by finding vulnerabilities, he would pose as someone else in the real world
and trick people into giving him information that would allow him to access their systems.
He would imitate someone in the company to acquire usernames and passwords. Other times
he would impersonate a higher up in a corporation to gain access to secure servers. He would even
trick people into giving him entire field manuals to their company, which he would use to exploit
vulnerabilities in their computer systems. Kevin Mitnick had been doing this for years,
and he had recently figured out that by using cell phone networks, he was virtually untraceable.
But that would not deter Shimomura from bringing the hacker to justice. Shimomura got in contact
with a Sprint cellular technician and informed him who they were dealing with. Due to warrants that
were still waiting to go through, Shimomura could only have access to certain cell phone records,
which made his job of pinpointing the exact location of Mitnick incredibly difficult.
As Shimomura and the Sprint technicians went through the data they stumbled upon something
surprising. There were particular numbers that were accessing the network for much longer than
the average call. Also, when they tried tracing these numbers they would always lead to a dead
end. Whatever switch this person was using within the Sprint phone network had been hacked,
allowing the caller to use the phone network to connect to the internet without being traced.
Shimomura knew that this must be his guy. He started sifting through the
massive amounts of cell phone data that had been stored in Sprint’s servers. He tracked
down some of the longest cell calls and then randomly chose several. Although they were
all coming from different numbers, each call was being routed through the same cell tower.
This was incredibly unusual because at the time long cell phone calls
would be incredibly expensive, and if the cell network was being used to access the internet,
the bill would be astronomical. That is unless the service was being stolen.
Since the phone numbers connected to the extremely long call times all seemed to lead to nowhere,
Shimomura surmised it must be Mitnick. The hacker was using multiple cell phones to
access the internet, but all of them were using the same cell tower. He finally could narrow down
the search by using the location of this tower. Shimomura found the cell tower was in Raleigh,
North Carolina. The only problem was the search radius would be
too big without more information. Shimomura needed to get to Raleigh and narrow it down.
During his investigation Shimomura had been in contact with several companies
who Mitnick had targeted as well as the FBI. He informed them of what he had discovered,
and then bought a ticket to Raleigh where he would meet up with law enforcement
officers to try and find Mitnick’s exact whereabouts. But Mitnick was a smart man.
If he figured out that he was being watched, or that someone had located him, he would bolt.
Shimomura had to make sure he tracked Mitnick’s activity without tipping him off.
Not long after Shimomura arrived in North Carolina he got some disturbing news.
One of the cyber security experts he was working with informed him that
Mitnick had broken into the system of a company called InterNex. Mitnick had
already accessed their servers before, but this time he was doing something strange.
He deleted his old account in their systems and created a new one. It was as if he knew he was
being watched. And just to show he couldn’t be stopped, Mitnick started to destroy certain files.
This was bad news for Shimomura. If Mitnick was spooked he may run,
and they would be back to square one. But that didn’t seem to be the case as Mitnick
took things a step further. He hacked into a New York Times reporter's account named John Markoff.
Markoff had done a piece on Mitnick and other hackers for the newspaper. Mitnick made Markoff’s
account and emails accessible to everyone on the internet. It was a show of his power. He wanted
the world to know that there would be consequences for anyone who tried to cause him trouble.
This behavior escalated things to the next level. Mitnick seemed to be out for revenge.
Shimomura needed to move fast before any more personal or sensitive information was released
by Mitnick. The cyber security personnel who were observing Mitnick’s movements on different
servers concluded that he was acting paranoid. He was baiting them to try and discover if he
was being watched. Because of this, they ended the virtual surveillance of Mitnick.
Shimomura met with Sprint technicians and FBI agents to try and find the
exact location of the rogue hacker. In their discussions it became clear that Mitnick had
used his social engineering tactics to gain access to the Sprint servers. This
was how he was able to mask his signal and make it untraceable.
That night a FBI radio surveillance team from Quantico arrived in Raleigh. With them they
had the answer to the problem of pinpointing Mitnick’s location. He was still infiltrating
different servers, meaning that he was still accessing the internet via the Sprint cell tower.
It would appear for the time being he did not believe he was in any real danger of being caught.
This was good news for Shimomura and the Feds. The tech that the surveillance team had with them was
a large device that sat on top of their van. It was normally used for testing cell phone signals,
however, under the circumstances it could be used to intercept Mitnick’s connection.
This would then ping the location of the actual cell phone to the surveillance team.
There was only one problem: the tracking device was huge. If Mitnick saw a van
driving around with surveillance equipment mounted on top of it he would instantly know
that he had been located. This would likely cause him to ditch his cell phones and run,
meaning that once again he would slip through the fingers of law enforcement.
Luckily Shimomura came up with a solution. The Sprint facility had empty fluorescent
light boxes that could be cut and stacked in a way which would conceal the surveillance device
without compromising its effectiveness. The team mounted the boxes around the device on
the roof of the van making it look like a normal electrician’s can instead of a FBI
surveillance vehicle. The team set off to locate the hacker and bring him to justice.
They searched Raleigh all night, and in the morning they had pinpointed
the complex that Mitnick was working from. However, due to interference,
they could not identify the exact apartment he was in.
There was still time for Mitnick to escape if he figured out what was happening.
Shimomura was ready to end this. He had successfully identified the vulnerabilities
Mitnick was taking advantage of, figured out how he was remaining untraceable,
and narrowed the search down to a single apartment complex. He was so close to
ending this manhunt he could taste it, but the FBI was moving slowly. They were wary of
Mitcnick because he had eluded capture for over two years now. They wanted to
make sure they had as much information as possible before revealing themselves.
No one believed that Mitnick was physically dangerous, but the information he had,
and power he wielded, could allow him to damage computer systems around the country and release
incredibly sensitive information across the internet. The law enforcement team was waiting for
Mitnick to sign on again so they could be sure he was in his apartment and focused on his computer.
Then it happened. Sprint notified Shimomura and the FBI team that one of Mitnick’s cells
had connected to the tower. It was time to make their move. But then
something unexpected happened. Shimomura began picking up a data carrier signal from
the opposite side of the cell tower. This meant either Mitnick had changed locations
and they were in the wrong spot, or someone else was working with him. There was no time
to figure out which scenario was correct. The FBI had already stormed the apartment complex.
It seemed like eternity as Shimomura waited to find out if the agents had arrested Mitnick,
or if he was on the run. Then the news came. They had him. Mitnick was in his apartment
and arrested while sitting in front of his computer monitor. Shimomura had done it;
he had successfully tracked and located one of the most wanted hackers in the country.
In the initial court hearing for Kevin Mitnick, Shimomura was in attendance. As Mitnick passed
by he did a double take. He recognized Tsutomu Shimomura. Kevin Mitnick nodded,
“Tsutomu, I respect your skills," he said. Shimomura nodded back.
The hunt for one of the most dangerous hackers in the country was finally over.
But what about the second signal Shimomura picked up? When he checked his phone messages
Shimomura had several voicemails to go through. To his surprise some were from Mitnick himself,
taunting Shimomura and saying that he’d never be able to stop him. But then something even more
unnerving came over the speaker; a voicemail that was left 8 hours after Mitnick’s arrest.
In it a man with a fake Asian accent who had left taunting messages for Shimomura
earlier had changed his tone. Apparently Mitnick had an associate working with him.
In this final message the man’s voice was much more uneasy. The person apologized
saying that things were getting “way too big” and he didn’t mean anything he said.
It was never discovered who this person was, or how close they were with Mitnick.
Shimomura wasn’t too worried about it though as he had brought one of the most dangerous
hackers in the country to justice, and knew he could do it again if he had to.
Now watch “Why Is The Government Terrified Of This Hacker?” Or
check out “How Did These Insanely Smart Hackers Get Caught And Arrested.”