The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage by Clifford Stoll

Jul 23, 2012 Eric Lin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: current-nonfiction

Great book. The FBI was incredibly frustrating to read about. Not many people would have been persistent enough to stick with this. I'm impressed with how diligently the author worked to track this guy down.

One small gripe though - the author seemed way too self conscious about his political identity add a result of cooperating with the guys in suits. Was he trying to spin it as an internal struggle between who he was, and who this experience made him become? Not buying it, Cliff.

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Sep 09, 2012 Brian Rosenblat rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book. Loved the references to Berkeley, the hacker chase, but most interestingly, it takes you back to an earlier time in computing (in 1989)- which I thought was a fascinating reminder of what things were like. For example, I love the explanation of 'electronic mail.' At this point, I think most people have forgotten what the 'e' in email stands for.

Also, a favorite passage, as he explains what the "Internet" is:

"At first, DARPA's network [the Internet] was simply a test

...more I really enjoyed this book. Loved the references to Berkeley, the hacker chase, but most interestingly, it takes you back to an earlier time in computing (in 1989)- which I thought was a fascinating reminder of what things were like. For example, I love the explanation of 'electronic mail.' At this point, I think most people have forgotten what the 'e' in email stands for.

Also, a favorite passage, as he explains what the "Internet" is:

"At first, DARPA's network [the Internet] was simply a testbed to prove computers could be linked together. Since it was seen as an unreliable experiment, universities and laboratories used it, and main stream military people ignored it. After eight years, only a few hundred computers were connected into the Arpanet, but gradually, others were attracted by the network's reliability and simplicity. By 1985 the network directory listed tens of thousands of computers; today, there must be over one hundred thousand."

100,000 computers! Just for comparison, I did a quick search. Analysts predict there to be more mobile devices connected to the Internet then humans alive in 2016 - that's more than 7.6 billion mobile devices - that doesn't include desktop and laptop computers. (source: Cisco VNI Index). Wonder what it will be like in another 20 years?

The story is also fascinating. Shows how one guy in a computer lab in Berkeley was able to track down a ring of international hackers and awaken some of the US top security agencies to the dawn of a new form of espionage. It was amazing how lax computer security was before this - and how it took an incident like this to awaken these agencies to the threat of cyber espionage.

Only reason it gets 4 instead of 5 starts is that while the beginning and end are very interesting, about mid-book it starts to get pretty repetitive. E.g. (view spoiler)

Overall, really liked it. I think you need to be a bit of a computer geek to enjoy this one. But would definitely recommend to anyone who wants to reminisce a bit who enjoys a good spy chase laden with UNIX commands.
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Mar 19, 2008 Nick rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

I read this book first around sixth grade and again last month. It was wicked good the first time and so-so the second time. I think as I've gotten older and wiser and more discerning, and as technology has progressed, this book hasn't aged well.

Here's the synop: Cliff Stoll is an astrophysicist who knows just a little something about computers (obviously a lot). He's living at UC Berkeley in the early days of the internets. One day he discovers a 75 cent accounting error (this is back before AO...more I read this book first around sixth grade and again last month. It was wicked good the first time and so-so the second time. I think as I've gotten older and wiser and more discerning, and as technology has progressed, this book hasn't aged well.

Here's the synop: Cliff Stoll is an astrophysicist who knows just a little something about computers (obviously a lot). He's living at UC Berkeley in the early days of the internets. One day he discovers a 75 cent accounting error (this is back before AOL charged you by the minute), and kablammo! he's discovered a hacker. Now all he needs to do is catch him...

When I read this at 12 going on 13, this book seemed like a bleeding edge thrill-a-minute technological game of cat and cuckoo. And now, at 26 going on 27, it's still kinda neat. Cliff is obviously a brilliant guy, and he does really well in 1) explaining his maneuvers to keep the hacker at bay and 2) downplaying how smart he was. What annoyed me was all the personal stuff in this book and how intrusive it is. I don't care about Cliff the person. I want to read about Cliff the cyber-battler, the Cliffinator sent back from 2008 to 1986 to battle the West German hacker Markus Hess. Or simply Cliff the research paper.

Here's the personal shit I don't like: Cliff's a hippie cliche who hates the government, wears tie-dye, likes the Dead, and lives and works in Berkeley. His girlfriend/fiancee is built like a sumo wrestler (this is subtly alluded to). Her old college roommate is a butch lesbian who hates the government. Their present roommate is a violinist who's always brining home a new crazy man.

Cliff's sooo frustrated that no government agency will help him. Why won't they help him?! And what about the future of the internet, and the need for open networks to foster scientific intercourse and shit like that?? Waaaa, waaaa, why don't you cry about it, you big hippie baby?

OK, so I'm being hard on Cliff and his wacky teammates in life. What can I say, though? They're all boring. Cliff and his entire life is boring. Except for the hunt. So Cliff, focus on the hunt.

If you've made it this far through this self-indulgent review, you might wonder why I gave this book 4 stars. I'll tell you why: I loved it the first time, and the second time, last month, was still pretty good. Cliff Stoll - he can keep you up at night past your bedtime. His book's good in bed.(less)

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Oct 02, 2008 Rafael rated it 5 of 5 stars

Por razones laborales he estado revisando temas de seguridad informática, eso me llevó a releer un texto que escribí y publiqué en Revista Red hace como diez años. Los temas de seguridad han evolucionado y hoy estamos inmersos en temas muy interesantes de biometría para autenticación de usuarios, como platicaba hace unos días con mi amigo Enrique Daltabuit, experto nacional en el tema. Sin embargo el texto de hace diez años tiene vigencia en la medida en la que comenta un libro fascinante, uno d...more Por razones laborales he estado revisando temas de seguridad informática, eso me llevó a releer un texto que escribí y publiqué en Revista Red hace como diez años. Los temas de seguridad han evolucionado y hoy estamos inmersos en temas muy interesantes de biometría para autenticación de usuarios, como platicaba hace unos días con mi amigo Enrique Daltabuit, experto nacional en el tema. Sin embargo el texto de hace diez años tiene vigencia en la medida en la que comenta un libro fascinante, uno de esos que se siente inmediata necesidad de compartir.
Se trata del libro de Cliff Stoll, The Cuckoo'segg, es decir El Huevo del Cuclillo, ese pájaro que los suizos han puesto a vivir dentro de sus relojes y que tiene el hábito de parasitar los nidos que construyen otras aves. No se si exista una traducción al español de este libro tan ilustrativo, pero sería una lástima que no fuera accesible a más personas.
Stoll era en 1986, año en el que inicia la historia, un estudiante graduado de astronomía en Berkeley, donde también administraba una de las computadoras del laboratorio Lawrence. A partir de una diferencia de 75 centavos de dólar en la contabilidad de la computadora, cifra que es pequeña, por más fluctuaciones de la moneda que haya, descubre que ha estado ocurriendo un acceso no autorizado a su máquina.
Ahí arranca una obsesiva, desesperada, desesperante y muy ingeniosa persecución del intruso a través del laberinto de conexiones entre las computadoras. La persecución se hará a través de líneas telefónicas locales, cables trasatlánticos, satélites y desde luego varios países en América, Europa y Asia.
El libro, construido con base en la bitácora que Stoll fue escribiendo conforme se desarrollaban los hechos, no es una novela, narra acontecimientos reales, pero su lectura es sumamente adictiva. Uno empieza a pasar página tras página con la angustia de querer saber qué va a ocurrir, en que momento y cómo será descubierto el intruso. Tampoco es un libro de texto pero enseña muchas cosas acerca de la seguridad en cómputo, quizás la más importante es que si bien no existen —y quizás no puedan existir— sistemas de cómputo seguros en 100 por ciento, en muchos casos el principal responsable de la falta de seguridad en una máquina es su administrador.
Muchas veces, quien se dedica a ingresar de manera subrepticia en computadoras a las que no tiene permitido el acceso puede hacerlo si conoce magistralmente las fortalezas y debilidades del software que se utiliza para adminsitrar la máquina, quien quiera evitárselo deberá hacerlo también usando el mismo software. Una especie de guerra de inteligencias se establece entonces, haciendo por eso tan atractivo el asunto. Sumemos a eso que los delitos computacionales pueden ser buen negocio e iremos entendiendo porque el ataque a los sistemas de cómputo se va volviendo un tema de nuestros días.
Esta lucha entre dos cerebros, que emula el placer del juego del ajedrez queda muy clara en el relato de Stoll. El intruso ha descubierto una debilidad en el editor de textos creado por Richard Stallman, Gnu-Emacs. La flaqueza consistía en que el programa permitía llevar archivos a las áreas protegidas de la computadora.
Cuando un equipo de cómputo es utilizado por varias personas, cada uno de ellos tiene distintos derechos. Cada uno puede leer y escribir en sus registros, pero no en los de los demás. El administrador del sistema tiene permisos especiales para colocar archivos en áreas protegidas para acceder a los archivos de todos los usuarios.
Valiéndose del Gnu Emacs el hacker de Stoll lograba colocar en un área privilegiada de la computadora un programa que le daba privilegios de super usuario, es decir de administrador del sistema, con posibilidades de crear o destruir cuentas de usuarios y leer archivos confidenciales. En una palabra se volvía dueño de la máquina.
Esta forma de convertirse en superusuario es la que da origen al título del libro: En palabras de Stoll: "El cuclillo pone sus huevos en los nidos de otros pájaros. Es un parásito de nidos... Nuestro misterioso visitante dejó un programa-huevo en nuestra computadora, permitiendo al sistema empollarlo y alimentarle privilegios".
Pero si el intruso tiene recursos para hacerse con la máquina, Stoll los tiene también para vigilarlo y rastrearlo. Lo observa desde una computadora en la que no puede ser detectado, conecta una impresora a la máquina para registrar cada teclazo que el intruso efectúa cuando está en sesión, construye software para hacer sonar una alarma cada vez que hay una introducción no autorizada. El soft¬ware da incluso, en clave Morse, la inicial de la letra de la clave del acceso no autorizado. Stoll duerme varias noches en la oficina a la espera del hacker, contacta a todas las oficinas de las tres letras, como él llama a la FBI, CIA, DOE, FCI, etc. que pueden intervenir en el caso. Avisa a los administradores de los sistemas, que están siendo vulnerados, de la presencia —muchas veces ignorada por ellos mismos— del hacker.
Algunos administradores reaccionan simplemente cerrando el hueco de sus sistemas, que había permitido el acceso del extraño. Stoll no lo hace; sabe que si eso no resuelve el problema, el fisgón encontraría otra ruta a través de otras máquinas para seguir espiando dentro de los sistemas militares de los Estados Unidos. Stoll decide dejar abierta la puerta de su computadora para que el intruso pase y poder saber que hace.
Cuando en alguna ocasión, el hacker, está obteniendo información indebida, Stoll que lo observa, produce con sus llaves corrientes espurias en las conexiones, para que el espía reciba caracteres ininteligibles en su máquinas. En muchos casos el hacker logra el ingreso a las computadoras mediante un tedioso procedimiento de ensayo y error. Hace la llamada para la conexión y cuando le preguntan nombre y clave en el sistema propone algunos obvios como Quest o Field y Service en las computadoras Vax.
Por increíble que parezca esto le funciona —por descuido de los administradores claro. Algunas veces visita 60 o más máquinas sin éxito y de pronto, ábrete sésamo, ingresa como superusuario. Stoll compara esto con andar deambulando por las calles, moviendo las perillas de las puertas para ver quien olvido echar llave.
Una vez dentro de alguna computadora, el espía coloca su programa-huevo, se vuelve superusuario, lee los archivos y ahí encuentra claves para otras computadoras o copia el archivo donde están las claves de los usuarios o siembra un programa que los lea en el momento en que se conectan.
Stoll que es un estudiante de Berkeley, recordemos que esta universidad es famosa además por la rebeldía de sus estudiantes, encuentra difícil hablar y colaborar con los agentes federales, pero lo hace por un profundo sentimiento de que el hacker está destruyendo lo más importante de las redes de computo: la posibilidad de comunicarse. Los hackers destruyen la confianza de las personas en los sistemas de cómputo y pueden llevarnos a aislar nuestros sistemas en busca de la seguridad.
Stoll logró localizar a su hacker y poner en perspectiva que la irrupción no autorizada en sistemas de cómputo no sólo es como un duelo de inteligencias, no es algo inocuo como el ajedrez, es una actividad que daña la confianza de los usuarios de las redes de cómputo.
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Mar 16, 2011 Brian rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, awesome-narrative-non-fiction, nerd-stuff, recommended-non-fiction, hackerspotting, favorite-book-read-each-year

(5.0) So much fun! (may need to be a little computer-geeky to really love it)

Crazy cool true story about an astronomer-turned-sysadmin at Berkeley in the 1980s who decides to track down a 75 cent accounting discrepancy in server usage, and turns into a year-long hunt to track down a sneaky computer spy operating for the KGB. Covers several severe holes in Unix security, but emphasizes that the weakest link in security is almost always from human operators.

Very engaging read, tore right through i...more

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Apr 10, 2012 Joan Szechtman rated it 4 of 5 stars

THE CUCKOO’S EGG is a quirky tale of computer hacking and espionage. When the grant money ran out, Stoll, an astronomer at the Keck Observatory at the Lawrence Berkeley Lab (LBL) suddenly had a choice—collect unemployment or develop programs in LBL’s basement for the astronomers who still had grants. He chose to program. One task Stoll was assigned had nothing to do with astronomy, but rather to keep track of computer usage. In other words, he had to work on the accounting software. He soon stum...more THE CUCKOO’S EGG is a quirky tale of computer hacking and espionage. When the grant money ran out, Stoll, an astronomer at the Keck Observatory at the Lawrence Berkeley Lab (LBL) suddenly had a choice—collect unemployment or develop programs in LBL’s basement for the astronomers who still had grants. He chose to program. One task Stoll was assigned had nothing to do with astronomy, but rather to keep track of computer usage. In other words, he had to work on the accounting software. He soon stumbled upon a 75¢ accounting error assigned to a user who didn’t have a valid accounting address. His investigation of this error drew him into an “Alice in Wonderland” like rabbit hole that soon involved many three-letter agencies, Tymnet, and the German post office. It nearly ate up a year of his life. The hackers were finally caught and thanks to Stoll’s diligence and superb record keeping, the hackers were could be prosecuted.

Because the computers at Berkeley were not isolated, but networked to other scientific and military computers, the hacker could potentially threaten our national security. Stoll skillfully draws us into his world of trying to find the hacker, get the proper authorities involved, with varying degrees of success, and prevent the hacker from getting sensitive information. Through the story, I was able to feel Stoll’s frustrations in dealing with the bureaucracies, the thrill of trapping the hackers, and the tedium of setting up traps.

Despite that this was first published in 1989, the damage a hacker can do to any networked computer and the need for secure passwords described in this book is as valid today as it was then. Most of us don’t have military secrets on our personal computers (at least I hope we don’t), but we all do have some private information that we wouldn’t want compromised. Even though I’m a reasonably experienced computer user, this book reinforced what I knew about the need for my own security as well as informed me on certain issues that I had not given any thought, and it did so in an interesting and humorous manner. Even though there were no high-speed chases, no explosions or fires (well one, sort of, but I’ll leave that for the reader to discover), this was a thrilling page-turner. Recommended.(less)

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Mar 30, 2012 James Swenson rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Highly recommended, especially for anyone who's been a computer aficionado for a while. The Cuckoo's Egg is a real-life spy thriller that takes us back to the pre-Internet era of networked computing. The author, on his first day at work as a network administrator, is assigned to track down a 75-cent error in the accounting system that bills users for their computer time. It turns out that the 9 seconds in question were used by a hacker passing through. Gradually, Stoll's life is taken over by th...more

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Sep 14, 2011 Yune rated it 4 of 5 stars

I became aware of Cliff Stoll through his website, where he sells Klein bottles. How cool is that? Anyway, his FAQ includes the question, "Are you the same guy that...?" and the answer, "Yep, same guy."

Same guy as what? I wondered. Thanks to the marvel of Internet search engines, I discovered he was responsible for one of the first documented cases of digital forensics -- on the track-down-the-hacker side, not as the target of the investigation. How cool was that?

(I checked this book out of the...more

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Jun 01, 2010 Linda rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

I don't know why I love this book so much, but I do! I first read it about 20 years ago when it first came out, and read it for a third time last week. It reminds me a bit of the movie "Sneakers" when Redford tries to solve computer crime. But this is all true. A measly 75 cent accounting glitch puts astronomer-turned-computer-programmer on the trail of an international spy. Lots of insight into governmental blinders and how "helpful" those three letter agencies such as the CIA, FBI, and NSA.
Yea...more

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Sep 22, 2009 Jonathan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Here is the story of how I came to read The Cuckoo’s Egg: I purchased it at a library book sale because it looked interesting, tossed it in a box because I didn’t have time to read it, and promptly forgot about it.

Then I got married, and we got real bookshelves instead of boxes, and I put the book on the shelf because it was hardbound and hardbound books show that you are a serious, thoughtful person.

Then my Uncle Steve came over from Florida and started telling me about a book he had read, a tr...more Here is the story of how I came to read The Cuckoo’s Egg: I purchased it at a library book sale because it looked interesting, tossed it in a box because I didn’t have time to read it, and promptly forgot about it.

Then I got married, and we got real bookshelves instead of boxes, and I put the book on the shelf because it was hardbound and hardbound books show that you are a serious, thoughtful person.

Then my Uncle Steve came over from Florida and started telling me about a book he had read, a true story of a guy tracking down a hacker in the 80s. “Wait a sec,” I said, “is it this book?” And I pulled down my dusty copy of The Cuckoo’s Egg. It was, in fact, that book, and I decided that it didn’t deserve space on the shelf if I hadn’t actually read it.

The Cuckoo’s Egg is written by an astronomer who had been put in charge of some computers. He’d been trying to track down a 75-cent accounting error–this was back when you had to pay for every cycle of computer time–and, almost entirely by accident, found a hacker in his system, using it as a stepping-stone to attack other computer systems around the country.

That all happens in the first twenty-five pages. Rather than closing the hole the hacker was using to get in, however, Stoll decided he wanted to catch the guy, and that’s where the real story begins, because tracking a communications link backwards is not very easy. None of the three-letter government agencies take him seriously, his relationship with his girlfriend is rather strained, and the three weeks his boss gave him to investigate the problem stretch into months. It’s tedious work (and, in parts, tedious reading) analyzing every move the hacker makes and trying to piece together enough information to catch him.

This book isn’t for everyone. It’s a spy story, but it’s been pieced together from Stoll’s logbook and the man is a scientist–you’ll find no melodrama or embellished details here, just the facts. The author doesn’t assume a technical audience but if you’ve ever used Unix (or its successor on PCs, Linux), you will understand a lot more of what’s going on inside the systems. There’s just enough real-human stuff to break up the technical monotony–Cliff has an active social life, sews his own Pope costume, and at one point microwaves his shoes–but in the end this book is great reading mostly for those interested in computers and security.

I also recommend it if you want to know what the Internet was like in its Wild West days, before the personal computer and the World Wide Web brought it to the masses. Scientists, military networks, and archaic file transfer protocols are all present and accounted for. It’s a fascinating how old everything seems even though the book’s events happened only a little more than twenty years ago.

In closing, here’s a number sequence puzzle that a three-letter-agency spook gave Cliff in the book that–at the time of the book’s publishing–Cliff hadn’t figured out yet. Can you? Hint: It requires very little math.

1, 11, 21, 1211, 111221, ….(less)

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Sep 02, 2009 Andre rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

As a result of all of this reading, well, lately I've recently been, umm, learning a lot about myself.

A book is, in a very real sense, simply a mirror... except a highly amplified one that lets you hear your thoughts of what you've read.

I really liked this book (I flied through 330 pages in 3 days)! But the thoughts that I had while reading this book were, 'get to the point!' I found that highly frustrating to have to use logic to fight with myself on why he kept holding back information that t...more

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Jun 24, 2009 Claire S rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Claire by: General Awareness.

Shelves: struggles-of-use, fiction-not-at-all, horror-suspense-mystery-thriller, language, on-writing, psyche-of, science, u-s-hist_military, workplace

While it dragged in parts, in fact I remember kind of thinking I'd stop soon, multiple times during it; it always picked up just enough at the last possible minute. And since it's true, you know that the pacing was due to it being.. real life. And in fact, the pacing to me in retrospect was among the more fascinating aspects - this danger.. or this 'situation' even, that kind of recedes; might be over entirely... then it's back! And plans are made and intentions and further learning is gained an...more

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Jun 10, 2009 Bob rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

PB-Cliff Stoll is an astronomer who has been “recycled” to Keck Observatory at Lawrence Berkley Lab computer center. Now and aside – this a mystery, but it is also a true story. They time is 1987 and the early days of the internet and Cliff is tasked in his new position to reconcile a .75 cent difference in the accounting procedures for charging for computer time. This simple request turns into a year long search across time zones and countries for a computer hacker who has gotten into the compu...more

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Jul 09, 2012 Wilson Lanue rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, favorites

For some years after its 1989 debut, The Cuckoo's Egg was the book to read about computer hacking (or, more specifically, counter-hacking). But this superb read is much more than the memoir of an astronomer who followed a 75-cent accounting "error" to a Soviet spy and sudden fame as the world's top computer security expert.

It's the story of a sincere Berkeley liberal who came to see conservative establishment types as fellow human beings, to the confusion of those closest to him. Candid, thought...more

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Jan 27, 2013 Ilya rated it 4 of 5 stars

Clifford Stoll is an astronomer; in 1986 he lost his funding and got a job as a sysadmin at a physics lab. While studying the computer center's accounting system, he found a 75-cent discrepancy in the accounts. He realized that somebody had broken into a computer, and got a hardware technician to splice printers to the computer center's modems to track the hacker down. The hacker logged in and became a superuser by taking advantage of a security flaw in a mail program that was running as a root...more Clifford Stoll is an astronomer; in 1986 he lost his funding and got a job as a sysadmin at a physics lab. While studying the computer center's accounting system, he found a 75-cent discrepancy in the accounts. He realized that somebody had broken into a computer, and got a hardware technician to splice printers to the computer center's modems to track the hacker down. The hacker logged in and became a superuser by taking advantage of a security flaw in a mail program that was running as a root (what was the mail program doing running as a root?). This started a year-long chase. Using the physics lab's computer as a gateway, the hacker logged into poorly secured computers at military bases and defense contractor companies, searching for information about nuclear weapons, stealth airplanes and spy satellites, as recorded by the modem-spliced printer. The FBI was not interested, since the material damage from the hacker amounted to 75 cents at first, and something of that order later; the CIA showed a greater interest, but it was not allowed to spy inside the country. With the help of a friendly network company employee, Stoll traced the hacker to Germany.

In order to entrap the hacker, Stoll created many new files on the computer pretending that the physics lab had landed a big government contract to develop a network for SDI. The files were filled with gobbledygook, and mentioned a fictitious secretary who had the same given name but a slightly different surname than a female astronomer, who was let in on the hoax. The secretary was given the same address as the astronomer, who was told to watch for mail addressed to the secretary. Sure enough, a letter arrived from a man with a Hungarian name. German police arrested and prosecuted the hacker, who was a part of a hacker ring that sold its services to the KGB. Apparently the hacker shared information about the fictitious SDI contract with his handlers, who wanted to make the Hungarian-named man verify it. One thing that surprised me was a mention that the KGB offered the hackers 250,000 Deutschmarks for the VAX/VMS operating system in 1986 or 1987. A Soviet VAX clone was built starting in 1986; did it use an operating system stolen by the hackers, did the KGB not know what it was doing, or is this information incorrect?

The events in this book took place less than 30 years ago, but cybersecurity-wise it feels ancient. This is probably what jet pilots felt when they read about World War I air battles.(less)

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Jun 01, 2011 Elli rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: computers-and-systems, crime-criminal-activity, espionage, historical

I really appreciated this book, and Cliff Stoll is an excellent storyteller. I think he's fabulous. He and wife are a combination to be remembered! It was almost like a musical portrayal, building up the pressure, adding the proper elements to ease and balance and really coming into a crashing ending which I haven't quite reached yet.
It's also sort of like a movie I would have loved to have seen. I can just imagine the full hippie scene..."Be Polite Now" to the "expensive suits with no sense of...more

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Mar 23, 2009 Brian rated it 5 of 5 stars

All I can say is WOW!. It’s a true story about a guy who really isn’t all that computer savvy, yet gets a job working with high-end systems at Berkeley. A minor system accounting error turns into a huge trek down the road of tracking a hacker through a maze of connections and red tape.

The story takes place in the late 80’s, however, I found that it still pulled me in. The way he used the technology available at the time and the process he takes you through as he painstakingly tracks the hacker k...more

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Mar 23, 2011 Ryan Erickson rated it 5 of 5 stars

The The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage by Clifford Stoll is a fantastic journey into the history of computer espionage taking place way back to the mid-late '80s. As a computer novice who's dabbled in the world of unix/linux I found the real-life journey of Cliff Stoll, from Astronomer to hacker-hunter, an exciting adventure to follow.

What seemingly starts as a 75 cent error brings Stoll digitally crisscrossing the world searching for who's responsible for b...more

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Feb 27, 2011 J.R. rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

In 1986 an astronomer was given the task of tracking an apparent 75 cent accounting error in computer records at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California.

That assignment led Clifford Stoll on a 10-month chase to discover the identity of a hacker or hackers who breached security of private and government systems around the world.

The most amazing aspect of the case is that Stoll encountered so much reluctance on the part of government agencies, including the FBI, CIA and NSA, to assist...more

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Aug 29, 2010 D. rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Geeks, anybody with an interest in computer networking and security.

Very interesting and insightful account of a hacker's attack (from the good guys' perspective) which was hardly taken seriously in a time way before the Internet as we know it. I do agree with some of the other reviewers stating little Cliff is a bit too whiny about not being supported by the various "three-letter agencies" in his crusade against this spy and it does get a bit repetitive after a while. Same goes for the parts about his personal life, although it was interesting to see how far hi...more

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Mar 24, 2011 Bjoern rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011-reads, thriller, sachbuch, multiple-reads

I've read this book already several times over the last decades (in the german translation), but this new reread was every bit as enjoyable as all the times (5-7, i don#t really know and still i'm every time surprised about the afterword with it's second story... oops spoilers! :D) in the past. Cuckoos Egg still is one of my favorite books, mainly because of the weird mixture of computer talk, spy story, historic episode and truly mind boggling circumstances described.

Cliff Stoll simply found a...more

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Dec 03, 2008 Lee rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

I really liked this book, but some of his personal life information was less than interesting. I was mainly interested in the actual investigation instead of what he had going on in his life and how the investigation impacted his personal life. Some people might really like that aspect of the story, though.

Clifford Stoll is asked to check out some potentially buggy accounting software, or at least look into why some account charge is off by a little bit. This inquiry leads him to discover that...more

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Sep 07, 2009 Cecile rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: english, misc

I had the good luck of finding this book in a bookshop in France a long time ago, I was still at school then. I picked it up among books in French, it had only a plain hard cover, without the flap. At last I can see here what the cover looks like.
At that time I was interested in computing history, particularly the hacking part. Probably because I had seen the Wargames movie, but also because I was destined to work as a programmer.
Since then I've read this book several times.

This is the true stor...more

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Jun 01, 2012 Leo Leibovici rated it 4 of 5 stars

Read this some time ago, and again recently. When I first read it, it described a world of mainframe computer users that was exciting but out of reach. Now it seams like a history lesson. It shows just how far we have come in computer development and even more in adopting the "connected world".
However it still is a great read - a really good "detective story".
It is a real account of a PHD student (an astronomer) who is "into computers". He gets a temporary job as a system manager in a American...more

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Jan 20, 2009 Felix_scarecrow rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I really do not read spy/espionage type books, but I figured that this was computer based and an account of real events so why not. I was really impressed with this. The book underlines a lot of good points when it comes to computer security, which even if very dated are still applicable.

I would not have expected an astronomer to write a book as compelling as this, but I really could not put this book down. Beyond his descriptions of tracking the Cuckoo, he describes his own personal life and ho...more

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Mar 02, 2013 Jeff rated it 5 of 5 stars

I love this book. This is the 5th time I've read this book. I like to read it every couple of years. I love Clifford Stoll. I chose my career largely because of reading this book for this first time in High School. My opinions on technology use is shaped, in part, by his other two book: Silicon Snake Oil and High Tech Heretic.

This time around it was a bit slower of a read for me. The suspense is gone. Hard to pretend you don't know the end when you've read it before. But it does trigger a large...more

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Apr 24, 2012 Karen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Karen by: Vic

Shelves: 2012

This was a very cool book, and since it took place in the 80s, some of the statements people made were pretty funny in hindsight. E.g. one guy, in a room full of mainframe computers, says "you want to see what people will be using in 2010? Just look around here." If I had to pick one thing I didn't particularly enjoy about it, it is that it's very dry. I felt like the book could have been 50-75 pages shorter and still gotten the story and point across. But the author did a great job explaining v...more

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May 30, 2011 Jon rated it 4 of 5 stars

A highly enjoyable, if sometimes a bit monotonous, ride through the early days of hacking and computer security. An unsuspecting astrophysicist finds himself leading the hunt for a hacker who seems innocent enough at first, but is soon discovered to be breaking into military computers and selling secrets to the KGB. The fact that the story documents a real-life manhunt from the perspective of a civilian caught between reluctant intelligence agencies makes it an interesting and fun read. As a com...more

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Dec 18, 2010 Stephen Adams rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is a must-read for any system admin/computer tech. I've never had so much fun reading terminal output than when I had this book in my hands. Cliff Stoll tells the story of how, through a simple accounting error, he discovered that a hacker was trying to find his way into government computer systems. In a time where there were no such thing as "computer crimes" he goes from local police, to FBI, to the CIA trying to find somebody who can help him track down this guy. This book is simply...more

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Sep 22, 2011 John Kirk rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is an interesting story (with some funny anecdotes) and even 20 years on it still has some valuable tips about IT security.

Since this is a true story, there's quite a large "cast", and it can be difficult to keep track of who's who, particularly when some of them drop out of the narrative without fanfare.

I have a background in IT, and if you don't then you won't understand all of this book, although I'm not sure how much of a problem that will be. Actually, I would have liked a bit more tec...more

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Funny. I just heard about this book the first time yesterday	3	42	Nov 15, 2011 01:09am
Computer	1	10	Aug 30, 2011 10:05pm

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