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The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage
by Clifford Stoll
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Doubleday (1989-09-26)
ISBN: 0385249462
EAN: 9780385249461
Dewey Decimal #: 364.1680973
Binding/Media: Hardcover - 326 pages
Edition: 1st
Release Date: 1989-09-26
SKU: 509443
Condition: Collectable Like New
Comments: 1ST EDITION, WITH A BEAUTIFUL DUST COVER. GIFT QUALITY. BOOK AND PAGES IN PERFECT CONDITION. RAPID SHIPPING, FREE TRACKING. AIR MAIL.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
A true tale of electronic skulduggery and detection in the world of computers. It tells of a year the author spent tracking down a hacker who was using his computer as a way station to gain access to dozens of other systems all over the US, including sensitive military and intelligence networks.
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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.
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Customer Reviews
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Thrilling and insightful
Rating  (4)
Date: 2010-08-24
I remember reading this book way back "in the day." It spawned many hours of tinkering with computer systems as my brother and I attempted to hack each others computers with many creative ideas.
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Classic
Rating (4)
Date: 2010-08-21
The smallest clues often elude us. Stoll takes it and runs with it. If you're a governement IT person, you will find it intriguing even more. Couldn't put it down...
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Great Yarn!
Rating  (5)
Date: 2010-08-08
If you like Tech and Computers, this is a great yarn. You get a little computer history (because this book has been around for a while) and a good detective story. Set in Berkeley,Ca. it proves the old adage that an account that doesn't balance by just a few cents may be the tracks of a thief.
It is written in a very readable, affable style and I couldn't put it down.
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Ignite your passion
Rating (5)
Date: 2010-08-05
This book IS required reading for anyone interested in information technology, especially those who are interested or in the security field. I stumbled across it several years after I dropped a IT security course over a summer. It was sitting on my shelf- a book that I forgot to return after dropping the class. From what I remember, I barley put the book down. This book is a captivating read about security back in the day of dial up and send mail. It's a non-fiction story that starts when the author finds a small accounting error on a homegrown computer program at the university he works at. Without giving anything away, he finds out this error is related to something much bigger. Do yourself a favor and pick this book up quickly, I recommend it to all my friends both technical and technically challenged alike.
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The best real-life digital incident detection and response book ever written
Rating (5)
Date: 2010-07-18
4 out of 4 customers found this reveiw helpful
Cliff Stoll's "The Cuckoo's Egg" (TCE) is the best real-life digital incident detection and response book ever written. I know something about this topic; I've written books on the subject and have taught thousands of students since 2000. I've done detection and IR since 1998, starting in the military, then as a consultant and defense contractor, and now as director of IR for a Fortune 5 company. If you're not an incident detector/responder, you're probably going to read TCE as a general enthusiast or maybe an IT professional. You'll like the book. If you're a security professional, you'll love it.
I first read TCE 20 years ago when it was first published, but I was a high school student who couldn't appreciate the content. Now, as an IR team leader, I recognize that Cliff probably shares 25 IR lessons in the first 50 pages! I plan to write a separate article explaining these, and I encourage my team to read the book. I think TCE would form an excellent text for a semester-long course on IR, and I might teach such a course at some point.
TCE is an important book because it is a first-hand account of an intrusion, from the victim's discovery of the event to the prosecution of the offender. Two and a half decades since the events took place, some aspects of intrusions have changed and others have stayed the same. I don't see another author stepping forward to explain all of the personal and professional heartache and obstacles suffered while defending his enterprise against persistent adversaries. Today the threat of a lawsuit and the desire to protect company and professional interests would likely preclude such a story, and probably with good reason!
On a human note, I found Cliff Stoll to possess the single most important characteristic of a good incident responder: he took the intrusion personally, and it made him angry! All the best security professionals I know take compromise personally and react emotionally to the thought of intruders violating their enterprise. Cliff Stoll was effective because he was smart, yes, but he was exceptionally effective because he cared.
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