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

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 users on his system. The hacker's code name was "Hunter"-- a mystery invader hiding inside a twisting electronic labyrinth, breaking into U.S. computer systems and stealing sensitive military and security information. Stoll began a one-man hunt of his own, spying on the spy-- and plunging into an incredible international probe that finally gained the attention of top U.S. counter-intelligence agents. The Cuckoo's Egg is his wild and suspenseful true story-- a year of deception, broken codes, satellites, missile bases and the ultimate sting operation-- and how one ingenious American trapped a spy ring paid in cash and cocaine, and reporting to the KGB.

Cliff Stoll An astronomer by training and a computer expert by accident Cliff Stoll has become a leading authority on computer security, an issue recognized everywhere as among the most important security problems of the 1990's. He has given talks for the FBI, CIA and NSA, and has appeared before the U.S. Senate. Stoll, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for astrophysics, lives in Cambridge with two cats that he pretends to dislike.