2009 # 36

Cliff Stoll - The Cuckoo's Egg - Finished - 3/6/2009

PB-Cliff Stoll is an astronomer who has been ÒrecycledÓ to Keck Observatory at Lawrence Berkley Lab computer center. Now and aside Ð this a mystery, but it is also a true story. They time is 1987 and the early days of the internet and Cliff is tasked in his new position to reconcile a .75 cent difference in the accounting procedures for charging for computer time. This simple request turns into a year long search across time zones and countries for a computer hacker who has gotten into the computers at Berkley Lab and has Cliff discovers computers at may military, university and private companies across the country. It is a tale of the beginning of the internet and at the time there was very little known or practiced in the area of security. Cliff eventually contacted numerous government agencies from the CIA to NSA, Military security and the FBI and mostly they just brushed the off with the comment that it wasnÕt their problem. Its an interesting book, especially looking back for 30 years in the future.

ISBN - 0-671-72688-9, Suspense, Pages - 354, Print Size - R, Rating - 4