Cliff Stoll

The first true account of computer espionage tells of a year-long single-handed hunt for a computer thief who sold information from American computer files to Soviet intelligence agents

Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage

The Cuckoo's Egg

Edward Steel

Clifford Stoll

Patrick Book

This a surprisingly fun and compelling story, given the now-ancient technology it focuses on. But that’s also a large part of its charm. Stoll does an incredible job of breaking down what was, at the time, I’m sure, a dizzyingly complex technology-focused story and makes it simple to follow and understand. Considering I hadn’t even heard about the internet until some 14 years after the events he chronicles took place, this must have been a truly wild story when it was published. But it also holds up well, aside from the last chapter or so where it takes for granted that the reader has some context on the story (which I suppose they would’ve when it was published. It’s like a spy thriller written by a computer scientist but punched up by a comedian. It’s very charming and very entertaining.

Avery

I enjoyed this exploration of "vintage" computer systems. It differed from some other hacking tales I've read in that it was from the perspective of a person watching the hacker rather than that of the hacker. This gives it a fun detective story vibe.
The hacking itself was pretty low stakes and a lot of time was spent talking about how the hack wasn't bad enough to warrant any law enforcement getting involved. Somewhat frustrating, though probably not as much as it was for the writer at the time.

altlovesbooks

I'm usually super into tales about the early days of computers, technology, the internet, and gaming, but I think this one was a miss for me. The author was an astrophysics student at UC Berkeley who accidentally discovers a hacker while trying to explain a 75 cent(!!!) discrepancy in the computer time books. Rather than shut the guy out, Stoll spends months meticulously tracking the hacker's moves through the early 'net and creating a web of connections within basically every letter agency active at the time. Nobody wants to be the one agency to act, so there's a lot of back-and-forth between agencies at various points of the book, until someone finally loses patience, blinks, and the hacker gets caught.

I had a few issues with the book. I understand it's basically a computer period piece of how technology was at the time, but it still got super repetitive about halfway through. The beginning was really interesting, the end was similarly compelling, but the middle was basically a series of "I see the hacker in my systems, here's what he's doing, I wish I could stop him" short segments. I also was mildly annoyed at the author's massive Main Character Syndrome, where he turns the hacker information over to the proper authorities, and then gets all shocked/angry/annoyed at not being immediately privvy to whatever the government does with the information. Long segments of the book are dedicated to the author waxing philosophical about how he's working with The Man and how much he hates not knowing what's going on. It gets kind of annoying.

I did like the glimpse into the computer technology from the period, though. I liked reading about the innovative ways the author used to track the hacker, determine his location, and mess with him to keep him on the line long enough to be traced. Well done in that respect.

Just kind of a mixed bag of a book all around, honestly.

A true account of computer espionage describes a year-long single-handed hunt for a computer thief who sold information from American computer files to Soviet intelligence agents

Ivan Vega

Ricardo Sousa

The real story behind this book is genuinely impressive, specially considering the level of perseverance and resourcefulness involved.

As a book, however, it feels longer than it needed to be, includes multiple remarks on the author’s personal life and ideology which I found unnecessary, progressively loses steam after a strong start and, considering what is already revealed in the book’s plot summary, I couldn’t help but find the ending a bit underwhelming.

Neil Rostance

A novel for secondary school English classes with great writing and important themes.

Adam Goehrig-Bawany

Darren Olivier

Lovro Oreskovic

James Greeley

Carter Rabasa

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 mystery invader hiding inside a twisting electronic labyrinth, breaking into U.S. computer systems and stealing sensitive military and security information. Stoll began a one-man hunt of his own, spying on the spy -- and plunged into an incredible international probe that finally gained the attention of top U.S. counterintelligence agents. The Cuckoo's Egg is his wild and suspenseful true story -- a year of deception, broken codes, satellites, missile bases, and the ultimate sting operation -- and how one ingenious American trapped a spy ring paid in cash and cocaine, and reporting to the KGB.

The Cuckoo's Egg Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage

Reviews

Highlights