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

A must read for hackers and people generally interested in computer technology.

Although few decades one, this book is a good read.

Brilliant, absolutely a great read and one of my favorite thriller books.

I read this not long after it came out, and it's as vibrant and compelling now as it was nearly 30 years ago. Slightly mellowed by time from an urgent tale of cyber security and social engineering to a more historical mystery, the charm, authenticity and poise of the prose shines just as brightly. Following an near unbelievable true story from "revolve this accounting error" to "KGB assassination in East Berlin", Stoll waves a compelling narrative through a formative period in the evolution of the internet. Highly recommended. Just buy it.

This book should be an essential read for anyone interested in Cyber security. Its a great read and I just could not put the book down. Whether your a student, hacker, black hat, white hat, computer security professional or law enforcement its a must read. The story remains extremely relevant to present day. The general modus operandi of today hackers remains the same. To me this book is up there with 1984 and Animal Farm...but this is not satirical its a true story.If i was a teacher, lecturer or mentor in Cyber security/Network Security this would be a compulsory read!

Stoll, a surplus astronomer transformed into reluctant IT systems manager at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, starts with his hunt for the source of a tiny discrepancy in the accounts for computer usage at the laboratory. It leads him down little protected pathways into many theoretically high security US government and military organisations and contractors' computer systems, beginning in 1986, and consuming his life over months. He encountered disbelief and obstruction by organisations such as the FBI, CIA and NSA, before the story reached its climax. There is systems information for the enthusiast, especially of GMU-Emacs, but without distracting the non-IT reader from the exciting narrative and the background of life in Berkeley in the 1980s.

Cliff tells an interesting story of an accounting error in the computers at Berkley University. His work to understand this uncovered a computer hacker with access to many other systems including the US military.This account of the first ever ad hoc network monitoring, using printers connected to incoming modem lines, makes me realise how far we have come. While the technology has changed, the threat faced is still the same. Universities and Military organisations are still regularly attacked.This book is a must read for anyone in the cyber defence industry, but also an enjoyable novel for anyone interested in espionage or computer warfare.I have given this book 5 stars. Less for the writing ability and story (which are also great) but for the fact that this book will go down in history as THE book to read on network defence.

Swift delivery, very pleased

Good intriguing story.

Back in the days before it was illegal to try to hack into someone else's computer- and the authorities had too few resources Cliff Stoll became the sleuth. Hampered by his lack of jurisdiction progress was tortuous but chronicled in detail. This is a surprisingly riveting read and an insight into cross jurisdiction law enforcement.

I couldn't put this book down. In the midst of all the exposures of the workings of government by Snowden and Assange, this is a tale of the opposite - one man's battle to expose a computer hacker who threatened the heart of the US military machine. I won't spoil the book by revealing the ending. I shall say no more, for fear of doing just that!

This is a riveting read, one I found hard to put down when I read it after it first came out. Cliff Stoll documents one of the earliest attempts to hack our nascent internet. A natural writer, Stoll reveals how the mind of a good scientist, whose inquisitive nature had been sharpened by years of training, can discover great secrets overlooked by others.

An informative, entertaining and thrilling read...but only if you're interested in computers and security. I can't imagine a technophobe reading all 400 pages of BSD unix references, international telephone systems and one man constantly riding his bike to a lab to look at UNIX commands being entered (and the odd jangling of keys over the connection)

Surprisingly interesting, it just carries you along (like the reality did the author)

One of those books you could sit down and read from end to end. Very well told and shows how infuriating it must have been that nobody really cared what was happening to their computers except Cliff Stoll.

Don't read books much but this is an epic read if you like computers and spies.

initially I borrowed the book from the library. As an elderly woman not very into computing I was surprised to find that I understood a lot of the technical details and the true story of espionage in the dawn of the computing world was very gripping. Cliff Stott compiled a good story from his diaries and notebooks of the time. i purchased two copies from Amazon for my sons...

Reveals so much about the incompetence and irresponsibility of the large corporations. Also provides a facinating insight into the early days of computing. Great stuff!