The Cuckoo's Egg

Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage

By: Cliff Stoll

Narrated by: Will Damron

Before the internet became widely known as a global tool for terrorists, one perceptive US citizen recognized its ominous potential. Armed with clear evidence of computer espionage, he began a highly personal quest to expose a hidden network of spies that threatened national security. But would the authorities back him up? Cliff Stoll's dramatic firsthand account is "a computer-age detective story, instantly fascinating [and] astonishingly gripping" - Smithsonian.

Cliff Stoll was an astronomer turned systems manager at Lawrence Berkeley Lab when a 75 cent accounting error alerted him to the presence of an unauthorized user on his system. The hacker's code name was "Hunter" - a mysterious invader who managed to break into US computer systems and steal sensitive military and security information. Stoll began a one-man hunt of his own: spying on the spy. It was a dangerous game of deception, broken codes, satellites, and missile bases - a one-man sting operation that finally gained the attention of the CIA...and ultimately trapped an international spy ring fueled by cash, cocaine, and the KGB.

©1989 Clifford Stoll (P)2020 Tantor

Classic Book Still Relevant

I read this book when it came out 35+ years ago and was wondering how it had aged. The answer is that it has aged quite well. It's still enjoyable and still relevant given the seemingly non-stop stories of Chinese and Russian hackers finding their ways into pretty much every US network as of this writing. If you know technology, then you'll enjoy the quaintness of the state of the then cutting-edge networking in the 80s. If you are unfamiliar with such things, then you'll enjoy Stoll's explanation of them. Either way, it's a worthy listen and there is so much to like about Stoll's determination to solve the case. The only thing that doesn't age well is the naive attitudes exhibited by Stoll's friends and roommates with regard to his helping the "establishment" and that maybe we'd be better off letting a hacker roam through all of our country's military networks than to help "the man" -- definitely naive. But Stoll takes offense by the hacker's breaking the trust inherent in connecting computers and does what no one else seems to be willing to do and continue the hunt to its conclusion. I think my favorite part of the cat and mouse caper is the "Macgyver" manner that Stoll looks up printers, pagers, etc to track the activities of his prey.

Journeys through the wires

This was a fascinating trip through the origins of computer hacking complete with international espionage and bureaucratic rat mazes.

just can't stop listening

the writing was so vivid you can see the image clearly in front of you.

Accurate

Excellent storytelling about real events. Funny thing is over 30yrs later these same issues, lateral movement, are still a thing.

Classic cyber tale but longwinded

Great narration, story could have left out much of the repetitive middle section (hacked, traced, hacked, traced). Long, long buildup to a ho-hum ending. Epilogue is a more exciting than the main story. Still, not a bad tale and it's cyber canon.