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

Cliff Stoll

Jan 2020 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Will Damron

About this audiobook

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 seventy-five 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.

Ratings and reviews

The book moves at a snails pace and culminates in an incredibly boring and unsatisfying ending. The entire story is a loop of the same information over and over again. I finished the book always thinking that the good part was just around the corner, but it never came. This book attempted to make programming dark and sexy when it clearly wasn't. No high stakes, no risk involved in the entire plot. This was a 5 page summary stretched into a full length book.

As both a cyber security professional and personal that loves history, this book was AMAZING! By the way, I hate books, but this was an exception.

So interesting to learn about the early days of computer security. Well written and humourous.

About the author

Cliff Stoll, an MSNBC commentator, a lecturer, and a Berkeley astronomer, is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Cuckoo's Egg, Silicon Snake Oil, and High-Tech Heretic: Reflections of a Computer Contrarian. He lives with his family in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Will Damron is an Audie Award-nominated narrator who has recorded books in every genre, from science fiction and fantasy to romance, YA, and nonfiction. Raised in rural southern Virginia, he has appeared Off-Broadway and on stage and screen throughout the country. He lives in Los Angeles, California.