The Cuckoo’s Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage
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- ISBN13: 9781416507789
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Product Description
Before the Internet became widely known as a global tool for terrorists, one perceptive U.S. citizen recognizable its ominous potential. Armed with clear evidence of computer espionage, he started 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 tale, straight away 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 started a one-man hunt of his own: spying on the spy. It was a treacherous 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.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 excellent read with an engaging tale line and a critical outlook, as Clifford Stoll becomes, nearly 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 manufacturing espionage, primarily thanks to Stoll’s persistence and intellectual tenacity.
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I am trying to find some answers for the following questions. Before I review I just want to clear up the answers of the following questions. 1) What are the most vital events in the book? 2) How does the book end? 3)Who solved the mystery? 4)What appealing things about network security would I find in this book? 5)Beside Cliff Stoll who are the vital characters in the book? 6)What is the main organizations in the book? 7)What would have to be done differently to mitigate the risk of the security events that occurred in the book?
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
The Cuckoo’s Egg: Tracking a Spy Through a Maze of Computer Espionage. The very title smacks of suspense and excitement, and the tale has all the right ingredients for success: An astronomer’s detection of a 75-cent accounting flaw takes him on an electronic chase spanning multiple continents and computer networks, in which the secrets of our government are open to compromise by a menacing, calculating hacker! A passionate intellectual duel over an electronic battlefield is what the reader (gleefully) envisions. Sorry to say, all we get is a man bent over a computer mortal at 3:00 in the morning. The tale’s pace is as belabored as the hacker’s dull attempts at breaking computer systems. It takes more than exciting theme matter to write a compelling novel, and sorry to say the tale’s promise is left unfulfilled.
Having heard of its universal acclaim, I selected up Cuckoo’s Egg. I didn’t expect a masterpiece, only an enjoyable read. Even at this level, Cuckoo’s Egg fails to deliver. My initial excitement wore off roughly 70 pages into the book, at which point the plot starts to drag. `Hacker’ is a misnomer for the antagonist invader – basically all he does is sit guessing common passwords and bugs for hours on end. (Stoll informs us that it did not take very much to crack computer systems back then). But a tale like this needs a more dynamic antagonist. We never see any sign of life or spectacle of wit coming from the hacker – in fact, Stoll himself questions whether or not the hacker is a real person, or just a persistent computer program. Stoll’s solitary struggle against the invader never grows into a passionate, personal quest. Yes, he gets out of bed a couple of times and bikes to the computer center, but he is never in danger and never truly motivated. As a result, finding the hacker means just as much to us as it does to him: absolutely nothing.
Stoll tries to break this monotonous cycle by bringing us back to his `normal’ life, which isn’t much of an improvement. He’s hip because he belongs to the radical Berkeley political front, which we never hear much about; his roommate is appealing because she plays the violin; he is in like with his girlfriend because they make strawberry shakes on Sunday. One expects more from a novel over 400 pages long. The end fails to redeem or give purpose to the tale; when the hacker is busted, we’re not on the edge of our seats as the cops kick down the door, but as a replacement for slumped back thinking “It’s been years, it had to take place some time.”
Perhaps I’m being unfair to Stoll; after all, this is a tale based on real life, and he’s a college techno-astronomer, not Hemingway. But, after reading this novel, we painfully realize that exciting life experiences do not permanently translate into enjoyable novels.
Of course there are more options for persons who seek a breezy novel with cyberpunk flair; Neal Stephenson’s Snowcrash isn’t nearly as disappointing.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
A novel by the acclaimed Cliff Stoll who hacked the hackers because of a 75 cent error in a computer log. Cliff Stoll was an astronomer at Berkley who single handedly took down the hacker known as “Hunter” and learned the hacker’s link to manufacturing espionage.
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
While I was reading this book I felt like I was reading journal. Essentialy it was a journal with a small plot to beef up and pad the book. This was hard to read because it had very few exciting points. I only finished this because I had to read it for a class.
Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5
This tells of the reconciling of a 75 cent bookkeeping discrepancy that ultimately led to an intruder who broke into the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in order to break into classified military systems. Cliff writes with a ’stream of consciousness’ style that would be quicker reading with a more concise style. [Is this a bureaucratic style?] The book describes the lifestyle of University serfs: eating a lot of pizza, bicycling around, living with friends, and sewing quilts. The huge event of the year seems to be dressing up for a Halloween parade in San Francisco.
This book lacks a Table of Contents and an Pointer. This is worth reading as a slow-paced real detective tale; it is unlike fictional detective tales. One lesson is the care needed when talking over a phone line (the “F” entity). Were his comments on an uncaring Federal bureaucracy echoed in the aftermath reports of 9/11/? The personal activities of Cliff and his friends show them to be ‘dedicated followers of fashion’ who imagine themselves to be radically original. [Some of this was done decades earlier.] American telephones are computer controlled so they are simple to trace.
Cliff was questioned about the “adiabatic lapse rate on Jupiter”. This wasn’t “by chance”, but a test of his bona fides (Chapter 45). Chapter 47 clarifies how to decrypt Unix passwords from glossary words. Plodding through this book was tedious to me; he could have been more concise. Cliff claims the problem with viruses is they ruin trust, as he was later questioned about a virus. That was a sort of left-hand compliment, or hidden jealousy IMO. My advice is: trust no one.
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5