Rating: 
Summary: Great story, well written, a must.
Review: This is a story of a young astronomer who was ignoring his proper
job and playing with computers too much, who discovered some alarming
hacking into US defence computers and decided to track down the
culprits.
Stoll is a persistent thoughful and imaginative investigator and
occasionally puts his scientific training to good use, for example
when he theorises on the location of the hackers based on their
network latency.
I found this utterly enthralling, and it is the only book where I
have literally read it through from start to finish unable to put it
down, which in my case meant getting to bed at 5.30 in the morning.
As well as a fascinating story of hacking and detection, the book
contains wry anecdotes of the total gulf between Unix, VMS and Apple
Mac users. Although the story is 10 years old, these attitudes still
prevail to this day. And of course Unix still RULES!!!!
The age of the story is revealed when a mini-computer is described
as being powerful because it musters 10 MIPS. These days that won't
support a mail program :-)
The book also relates in intimate detail the dreadful buck-passing
that went on for months before the US powers finally did something.
Interspersed with the main story are some bits and pieces of
Stoll's own life and this reader found it a little sad how he devoted
so much time to catching the hackers whilst fully aware that his
girlfriend was missing him at home, and then in a wistful series of
postscripts we learn they split up - perhaps there was some
connection.
This is the best of all of these books on computer crime - a must!
Rating:
Summary: The Cuckoo's Egg is a great book.
Review: I read this book 2 years ago and I thought that it was really good. The author keeps you hooked though the entire thing. You keep wondering if he is ever going to catch the hacker. It is a wondrful well written book that anybody can read. It is also easy to understand to. This is why I like the book. I am reading it again for the fun of it. Gwen MacNeil
Rating:
Summary: Stoll is a computer genius with integrity!
Review: Cliff Stoll is an example of a computer genius with integrity, possessing an eye for detail as well as gift for writing! I elected to read "Cuckoo's Egg" for a college MIS course, and it made a lasting impression on me, not only for Mr. Stoll's extremely detailed, suspenseful account of real-life international hacking, but for his dogged determination and perseverance when his efforts often seemed in vain. This is a must-read for anyone in the MIS or computer field
Rating:
Summary: a true story that keeps you reading
Review: From the moment I started reading I was captured by this true and interesting story. Clifford Stoll tells his story in a way that is funny and easy to read for both computer experts and people who hardly know what a computer is. I think this is a must read.
Rating:
Summary: I couldn't Put it down
Review: This book was great -- I couldn't put it down. Cliff is a very energetic man who has an unbelievable knack for telling stories. I started reading ths book, and was drawn do deeply into the story that I couldn't stop untill the end. In short, read this book
Rating:
Summary: Put this one in your basket!
Review: No way! A suspenseful, funny, totally engrossing, and ENTIRELY TRUE spy novel without a single cloak or dagger, that makes arcane computer processes fathomable by just about anybody??
Better believe it. Better yet, buy it. Just don't blame me if you lose several hours of productive work.
Rating:
Summary: A true life spy thriller
Review: This is a true life account of how an astonomer tracks a
soviet sponsered spy who is breaking into sensitive computers in The United States. It reads as well as any
Tom Clancy novel.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding thriller for the computer security "egghead"
Review: First-rate selection for required reading in any Computer Science/Info Systems Mgmt computer security course. Cliff Stoll's hectic account of his passionate search for the $.75 error reads like fiction and entertains like Disney. Under its core, though, is an exceptional training tool for network managers. Beyond that of typical UNIX instruction, "Cuckoo's Egg" allows the reader an in-depth view of unauthorized access with malice. Most recommended
Rating:
Summary: True Computer-sleuth mystery for the technically ignorant.
Review:
Berkeley astrophysicist Clifford Stoll is assigned to computer house-keeping chores to help "earn his keep." A seventy-five cent accounting discrepancy in billing
computer time blossoms into a full-time cyber-space adventure which takes several years and spans oceans.
How can a Berkeley academic face his peers while assisting
the FBI and CIA? Will the FBI and CIA even believe him?
How will Clifford explain this to his department head? What
happens to astrophysics? Can you really start out missing
seventy-five cents and end up with spies? This true account
gave me a new appreciation for the disciplines of modern
science.
An amusing and expert communicator, Stoll takes the reader
into the heart of the Internet and its Unix operating systems. Even the most technically ignorant will be able to
follow Stoll on his detective trail. How nice not to feel
computer-stupid for once!
Rating:
Summary: There's more than one side to this book.
Review: The Cuckcoo's Egg is a true story about Cliff Stoll tracking down a hacker. Tracking the hacker is the MacGuffin of the the book as far as I was concerned. I was more interested in Cliff - a post-graduate something who never graduated from Berkeley's jingoist, anarchist views - and his growing relationships with the FBI, CIA, NSA, other "three-letter agencies" -- and his sweetheart, Martha.
It's the 1990's spy genre for us computer types and, particularly, those who play on the Internet. (Are any of you out there?)
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