October 8, 1995
Jonathan Littman
38 Miller Avenue Suite 122
Mill Valley, California 94941

Dear Jonathan,

This is in response to your separate letters to us. We
apologize for not being more prompt, Tsutomu was travelling
on business and did not receive your September 5 letter
until recently. As you know we have a contract with
Hyperion for Tsutomu's account of his participation in the
arrest of Kevin Mitnick, and at the request of our
publisher we have decided not to participate in other books
on the same subject.

First, in response to your September 7 request to John
Markoff, for permission to reprint his March 14 Well
posting, he is not willing to give permission.

However, we do think it is appropriate to respond to
several points where you have received inaccurate
information.

Our responses are not intended to be a comprehensive answer
to your list of questions, but only to protect you from
including libelous material in your book.

Tsutomu was not asked by any governmental, military or
intelligence representative to assist in the capture of Mr.
Mitnick. All of his actions were taken in response to
requests for assistance from both The Well and Netcom to
deal with extensive and persistent break-ins.

Tsutomu's decision to tell John Markoff that he was
travelling to Raleigh on Sunday morning was done without
contact with any law enforcement agency. Markoff flew to
Raleigh independently six hours later after discussing the
possibility of a story with his editors at the New York
Times. Markoff did not at any time assist or participate in
any aspect of the investigation into Kevin Mitnick's
activities; Markoff was there only as an observer in his
role as a newspaper reporter.

Moreover, in Raleigh on Sunday evening the Cellscope
equipment was never placed in Markoff's car, and there was
never any discussion about taking it out of the Cellular
One engineer's van or about placing it in Markoff's car.
Markoff parked his car near the cell site that night and
then later drove back to his hotel.

Tsutomu never told anyone from law enforcement that anyone
had authorized or cleared Markoff's presence in Raleigh.

Tsutomu was informed by the Justice Department that his
actions on behalf of the Internet providers and the
cellular telephone company during the course of the
investigation were covered under their fraud detection and
prevention exception granted to these organizations under
the ECPA.

Tsutomu did have discussions with the National Security
Agency about funding computer security research, the
results of which were to be placed in the public domain,
however no research grant was ever made. Tsutomu was not
aware of any statements made in the search warrant until
many days after the arrest.

Tsutomu did not lure Mitnick or anyone else into
breaking-in to his computers. The attack was entirely
unprovoked.

No copies of any files allegedly stolen by Mitnick were
provided by Tsutomu to anyone other than the legitimate
owners.

The first discussion of the possibility of a book on the
subject of Kevin Mitnick's arrest took place on Thursday
February 16, when John Markoff received a telephone call
from John Brockman, a New York City literary agent,
proposing a collaboration between Markoff and Shimomura.

You will remember, we hope, that after his July 4, 1994
article about the hunt for Mitnick, Markoff did not wish to
pursue the subject of Mitnick's life as a fugitive and
referred a free-lance article on the subject proposed by
Playboy to you.

Also please note that you are inaccurate in stating that
Tsutomu requested immunity before testifying before
Congress on April 1993.

We realize this is a delicate issue for you because of your
involvement and communication with Kevin Mitnick during the
period he was a fugitive. However, since your questions
suggest you believe there may have been something
inappropriate in Tsutomu's cellular telephone software
development work, if you do include material in your book
along this line, journalistic ethics require you to include
the following: Tsutomu, unlike Mitnick, in all of his
computer security research over a fifteen year period, has
always, whenever he has found a vulnerability, made it
known to the appropriate people, whether CERT, or a private
company at risk, or the United States Congress.

         Sincerely, (signed) John Markoff Tsutomu Shimomura