The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage | 
 enlarge | Author: Cliff Stoll
Publisher: Pocket
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
Buy New: $3.92
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Avg. Customer Rating:  156 reviews
Sales Rank: 21905
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 416
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.3 x 1.3
ISBN: 1416507787
Dewey Decimal Number: 327
EAN: 9781416507789
ASIN: 1416507787
Publication Date: September 13, 2005
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Amazon.com Review
A sentimental favorite, The Cuckoo's Egg seems to have inspired a whole category of books exploring the quest to capture computer criminals. Still, even several years after its initial publication and after much imitation, the book remains a good read with an engaging story line and a critical outlook, as Clifford Stoll becomes, almost unwillingly, a one-man security force trying to track down faceless criminals who've invaded the university computer lab he stewards. What first appears as a 75-cent accounting error in a computer log is eventually revealed to be a ring of industrial espionage, primarily thanks to Stoll's persistence and intellectual tenacity.
Product Description
Before the Internet became widely known as a global tool for terrorists, one perceptive U.S. 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 U.S. 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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 151 more reviews...
 brilliant 1980s detective novel September 28, 2008
all sorts of new stuff was going on with computers in the 1980s. It offered new opportunities for spies to steal military accounting and inventory records. Fortunately most people are incapable of deciphering military accounting and inventory records anyways. Clifford Stoll interjects just enough of his personal life to make the book read like a detective or spy novel. It would still make a seriously boring movie, but it is interesting as a book.
 Is it over yet? August 27, 2008
This book was way too long. The tale of the missing money and the subsequent tracking of a faceless hacker could have been told in 200 pages. What I found really tedious were all the phone calls - calls to try to track the hacker and to various government agencies to try to get help to catch the intruder. Phone calls can only be so interesting. Yes, it is real life and real life is never (I hope) as interesting as fiction - but by the time the hacker was caught, I was just happy to see the book end.
 Excellent book July 4, 2008
This was a required book for a computing ethics class I took, and I felt it covered a lot of material and was entertaining at the same time. I would have enjoyed reading it for recreational purposes and I highly suggest it. Some level of technical understanding might help with some material, but is not needed.
All in all, very well written book.
Great Read July 3, 2008
This is the kind of story that you have a hard time putting down. My son, husband, dad and I all read it. Two of the readers are very much into computers, the other two not so much. We all enjoyed it. It is also great to remember in detail the days before internet and gave my son a better understanding of how far we have come with this technology in such a short time.
I love this book. February 2, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
As you can see from the reviews here, many people also love this book.
I love the trip down memory lane that this book provides. Sure is fun to go back to a more innocent time and remember what it was like before the internet became huge. If you remember archie, gopher, kermit, then this is a book for you.
Even if you're too young to remember this time, it would be quite fun to watch WAR GAMES and then read this book. I love the writing style--this is a real page-turner.
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