American journalist
"Takedown: The Pursuit and Capture of America's Most Wanted Computer Outlaw" redirects here. For the book's co-author, see
Tsutomu Shimomura
.
John Gregory Markoff
(born October 24, 1949
[1]
[2]
) is a
journalist
best known for his work covering technology at
The New York Times
for 28 years until his retirement in 2016,
[3]
and a book and series of articles about the 1990s pursuit and capture of
hacker
Kevin Mitnick
.
[4]
[5]
Biography
[
edit
]
Markoff was born in
Oakland, California
, and grew up in
Palo Alto
,
California
.
[2]
He graduated from
Whitman College
,
Walla Walla, Washington
, with a B.A. in sociology in 1971. Additionally he received an M.A. in sociology from the
University of Oregon
in 1976.
[6]
After leaving graduate school, he returned to California where he began writing for
Pacific News Service
, an alternative news syndicate based in
San Francisco
. He freelanced for a number of publications including
The Nation
,
Mother Jones
and
Saturday Review
. In 1981 he became part of the original staff of the computer industry weekly
InfoWorld
. In 1984 he became an editor at
Byte Magazine
and in 1985 he left to become a reporter in the business section of the
San Francisco Examiner
, where he wrote about
Silicon Valley
.
In 1988 he moved to New York to write for the business section of the
New York Times
. In November 1988 he reported that
Robert Tappan Morris
, son of
National Security Agency
cryptographer
Robert Morris
, was the author of what would become known as the
Internet worm
.
In December 1993 he wrote an early article about the
World Wide Web
, referring to it as a "map to the buried treasures of the Information Age."
[7]
Markoff and Kevin Mitnick
[
edit
]
On July 4, 1994, he wrote an article about
Kevin Mitnick
, who was then a fugitive from a number of law enforcement agencies.
[8]
He wrote several more pieces detailing Mitnick's capture. Markoff also co-wrote, with
Tsutomu Shimomura
, the book
Takedown: The Pursuit and Capture of America's Most Wanted Computer Outlaw
about the chase.
[9]
Markoff's writing about Mitnick was the subject of criticism by Mitnick supporters and unaffiliated parties who maintained that Markoff's accounts exaggerated or even invented Mitnick's activities and successes. Markoff was also accused by Jonathan Littman of journalistic impropriety and of over-hyping Mitnick's actual crimes.
[10]
Littman published a more sympathetic account of Mitnick's time as a fugitive in his own book on the incident,
The Fugitive Game
.
Markoff stood by his reporting.
[11]
The book later became a film that was released direct to video in the
United States
. The film went much further, with Markoff himself stating to the
San Francisco Chronicle
in 2000, "I thought it was a fundamentally dishonest movie." Mitnick stated that he settled a lawsuit with distributor
Miramax
over the film for an undisclosed sum.
[12]
Post-Mitnick
[
edit
]
After Mitnick, Markoff continued to write about technology, focusing at times on wireless networking, writing early stories about non-line-of-sight broadband wireless, phased-array antennas, and multiple-in, multiple-out (
MIMO
) antenna systems to enhance
Wi-Fi
. He covered
Jim Gillogly
's 1999 break of the first three sections of the CIA's
Kryptos
cipher
[1]
, and writes regularly about semiconductors and supercomputers as well. He wrote the first two articles describing Admiral
John Poindexter
's return to government and the creation of the
Total Information Awareness
project. He shared the 2005
Gerald Loeb Award
in the Deadline Writing category for the story "End of an Era".
[13]
In 2009 he moved from the Business/Tech section of the
New York Times
to the Science section.
Markoff contributed to the
New York Times
staff entry that received the 2013
Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting
. The series of 10 articles explored the business practices of
Apple
and other technology companies.
[14]
[15]
He retired from his full-time position with
The New York Times
on December 1, 2016.
[16]
He continues to work as a freelance journalist for the
Times
and other organizations and volunteers at the
Computer History Museum
.
[7]
He is an affiliated fellow of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence.
[17]
Markoff is interviewed in
Do You Trust This Computer?
, a 2018 documentary on
artificial intelligence
.
Books
[
edit
]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Ask a Reporter Q&A: John Markoff"
.
The New York Times
. 2007. Archived from
the original
on October 15, 2009.
- ^
a
b
"John Gregory Markoff"
.
AI and the Future of Work
. MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). 2017. Archived from
the original
on 2018-03-02
. Retrieved
2018-03-06
.
- ^
Markoff, John (December 8, 2016).
"I Covered Tech for the Times for 28 Years, And Now My Time Is Over"
. Wired.
- ^
"Amazon.com: John Markoff: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, Kindle"
.
Amazon
. Archived from
the original
on 2015-02-27.
- ^
"John Markoff"
.
DLD Conference
. Retrieved
2019-08-20
.
- ^
"John Markoff"
.
NNDB
. Soylent Communications
. Retrieved
16 March
2012
.
- ^
a
b
c
John Markoff
interviewed on the TV show
Triangulation
on the
TWiT.tv
network
- ^
Markoff, John (4 July 1994).
"Cyberspace's Most Wanted: Hacker Eludes F.B.I. Pursuit - The New York Times"
.
The New York Times
.
- ^
Fallows, James (4 February 1996).
"An Outlaw in Cyberspace - The New York Times"
.
The New York Times
.
- ^
"Nonfiction Book Review: The Fugitive Game: Online with Kevin Mitnick by Jonathan Littman, Author Little Brown and Company $23.95 (0p) ISBN 978-0-316-52858-0"
.
- ^
"Markoff responds to Mitnick's criticism | ZDNet"
.
ZDNet
.
- ^
Fost, Dan (May 4, 2000).
"Movie About Notorious Hacker Inspires a Tangle of Suits and Subplots: Marin County author of Mitnick book says he was ripped off"
.
SFGate
. Retrieved
October 17,
2012
.
- ^
"2005 Winners"
.
UCLA Anderson School of Management
. Archived from
the original
on December 16, 2005
. Retrieved
May 22,
2010
– via
Internet Archive
.
- ^
"The 2013 Pulitzer Prize Winners - Explanatory Reporting"
. Pulitzer.org
. Retrieved
15 April
2013
.
- ^
"2013 Journalism Pulitzer Winners"
.
The New York Times
. 15 April 2013
. Retrieved
15 April
2013
.
- ^
"I Covered Tech for the Times for 28 Years, and Now My Time Is Over"
.
WIRED
. Retrieved
2018-03-06
.
- ^
"Fellows | Stanford HAI"
.
- ^
Briefly reviewed in the
April 25 & May 2, 2022 issue
of
The New Yorker
, p.73.
External links
[
edit
]
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Gerald Loeb Award for Deadline and/or Beat Writing (1985?2000)
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1985-1989
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1990-1999
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2000
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Gerald Loeb Award for Deadline or Beat Writing (2002)
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2002
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Gerald Loeb Award for Deadline Writing (2003?2007)
|
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2003?2007
|
- 2003:
Rebecca Blumenstein
,
Carrick Mollenkamp
,
Susan Pulliam
,
Jared Sandberg
,
Deborah Solomon
,
Shawn Young
,
Gregory Zuckerman
- 2004:
Susanne Craig
,
Ianthe Jeanne Dugan
,
Theo Francis
,
Kate Kelly
- 2005:
David Barboza
,
Steve Lohr
,
John Markoff
,
Gary Rivlin
,
Andrew Ross Sorkin
- 2006:
Michele Besso
,
Peter Bothum
,
Robin Brown
,
Steven Church
,
Ted Griffith
,
Maureen Milford
,
Jeff Montgomery
,
Gary Soulsman
,
Luladey B. Tadesse
,
Christopher Yasiejko
- 2007:
Ann Davis
,
Henny Sender
,
Gregory Zuckerman
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Gerald Loeb Award for Beat Writing (2001, 2003?2010)
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2001;
2003?2009
| |
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2010
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Gerald Loeb Award for Beat Reporting (2011?2023)
|
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2011?2019
|
- 2011:
Daniel Golden
,
John Hechinger
,
John Lauerman
- 2012:
John Fauber
- 2013:
Tom Bergin
- 2014:
Ivan Penn
- 2015:
Eric Lipton
,
Ben Protess
,
Nicholas Confessore
,
Brooke Williams
- 2016:
John Carreyrou
,
Michael Siconolfi
,
Christopher Weaver
- 2017:
Joe Fox
,
Len De Groot
,
Emily Alpert Reyes
,
David Zahniser
- 2018:
Julia Angwin
,
Hannes Grassegger
,
Je Larson
,
Noam Scheiber
,
Ariana Tobin
,
Madeleine Varner
- 2019:
Ranjani Chakraborty
,
Peter Gosselin
,
Ariana Tobin
|
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2020?2023
|
- 2020 (tie):
Dominic Gates
,
Mike Baker
,
Steve Miletich
,
Lewis Kamb
- 2020 (tie):
Katherine Blunt
,
Dave Cole
,
Russell Gold
,
Renee Rigdon
,
Yaryna Serkez
,
Rebecca Smith
- 2021 (tie):
Jenn Abelson
,
Abha Bhattarai
,
Nicole Dungca
,
Kimberly Kindy
,
Robert Klemko
,
Meryl Kornfield
,
Taylor Telford
- 2021 (tie):
Patience Haggin
,
Cara Lombardo
,
Dana Mattioli
,
Shane Shifflett
- 2022:
Emily Glazer
,
Keach Hagey
,
Jeff Horwitz
,
Newley Purnell
,
Justin Scheck
,
Deepa Seetharaman
,
Sam Schechner
,
Georgia Wells
- 2023:
Ian Allison
,
Nick Baker
,
Nikhilesh De
,
Reiller Decker
,
Sam Kessler
,
Cheyene Ligon
,
Sam Reynolds
,
Tracy Wang
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Previously the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism from 1985?1997
|
1985?2000
| | |
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2000?2025
|
- Eric Newhouse
(2000)
- Staff of the
Chicago Tribune
(2001)
- Staff of
The New York Times
(2002)
- Staff of
The Wall Street Journal
(2003)
- Kevin Helliker
&
Thomas M. Burton
(2004)
- Gareth Cook
(2005)
- David Finkel
(2006)
- Kenneth R. Weiss
,
Usha Lee McFarling
&
Rick Loomis
(2007)
- Amy Harmon
(2008)
- Bettina Boxall
&
Julie Cart
(2009)
- Michael Moss
& Staff of
The New York Times
(2010)
- Mark Johnson
,
Kathleen Gallagher
,
Gary Porter
,
Lou Saldivar
&
Alison Sherwood
(2011)
- David Kocieniewski
(2012)
- Staff of
The New York Times
including
David Barboza
,
Charles Duhigg
,
David Kocieniewski
,
Steve Lohr
,
John Markoff
,
David Segal
,
David Streitfeld
,
Hiroko Tabuchi
&
Bill Vlasic
(2013)
- Eli Saslow
(2014)
- Zachary R. Mider
(2015)
- T. Christian Miller
&
Ken Armstrong
(2016)
- International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
,
McClatchy
&
Miami Herald
(2017)
- Staff of
The Arizona Republic
& Staff of
USA Today Network
(2018)
- David Barstow
,
Susanne Craig
&
Russ Buettne
(2019)
- Staff of
The Washington Post
(2020)
- Ed Yong
(2021)
- Andrew Chung, Lawrence Hurley, Andrea Januta, Jaimi Dowdell and Jackie Botts (2021)
- Natalie Wolchover
& Staff of
Quanta Magazine
(2022)
- Caitlin Dickerson
(2023)
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International
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National
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Academics
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