# Zakir Durumeric

> Zakir Durumeric is a computer security researcher, Stanford assistant professor, and co-founder and CEO of Censys. As a University of Michigan PhD student he built ZMap, a scanner that can survey the entire public IPv4 internet in minutes rather than weeks, then turned that research into Censys, an internet intelligence platform used for threat hunting and exposure management. His work mapping the internet at scale helped expose the reach of vulnerabilities like Heartbleed and earned him a spot on MIT Technology Review's 35 Innovators Under 35.

- **Role:** Co-Founder and CEO at Censys; Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University
- **Organizations:** Censys, Stanford University, University of Michigan, Stanford Empirical Security Research Group
- **Nationality:** American (Turkish-American)
- **Education:** Ph.D. in Computer Science, University of Michigan, Graduate study in Computer Science and Engineering, University of Michigan
- **Known for:** Co-created ZMap, a scanner able to survey the entire public IPv4 internet in minutes, Co-founded and leads Censys, one of the leading internet intelligence platforms for threat hunting and exposure management, Named one of MIT Technology Review's 35 Innovators Under 35 (2015)

## Career timeline

- **2013** — As a University of Michigan PhD student, co-created ZMap, a fast internet-wide network scanner, presented at USENIX Security
- **2014** — Used internet-wide scanning to measure the reach of the Heartbleed vulnerability
- **2015** — Named to MIT Technology Review's 35 Innovators Under 35 for fast internet scanning
- **2017** — Completed Ph.D. at the University of Michigan; Censys founded to commercialize internet-wide scanning
- **2018** — Joined Stanford University as Assistant Professor of Computer Science; began directing the Stanford Empirical Security Research Group
- **2022** — Received a Test of Time Award for foundational internet measurement work
- **2026** — Received an NSF CAREER Award; joined the board of directors of zeroRISC

## Achievements

- Co-created ZMap, a scanner able to survey the entire public IPv4 internet in minutes
- Co-founded and leads Censys, one of the leading internet intelligence platforms for threat hunting and exposure management
- Named one of MIT Technology Review's 35 Innovators Under 35 (2015)
- Sloan Research Fellowship recipient
- Multiple IRTF Applied Networking Research Prizes
- Best Paper Awards at ACM CCS (2015) and ACM IMC (2014); Best Paper Honorable Mention at USENIX Security
- Test of Time Award (2022)
- NSF CAREER Award (2026)
- Maintains the widely used ZMap Toolkit (ZMap, ZGrab, ZDNS, ZLint, LZR)

## Latest updates

- **2026-03** — Joined the board of directors of zeroRISC alongside investor David Gammon
- **2026-01** — Received an NSF CAREER Award

## Links

- Website: https://zakird.com/
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/zakird
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/censysio
- GitHub: https://github.com/zakird

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/zakir-durumeric
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-07-22