Personal tools
You are here: Home Members Hawke The Cuckoo's Egg
Document Actions

The Cuckoo's Egg

by Hawke last modified 2008-04-30 05:33

A couple weeks ago I finished reading this (true) story related to information security. I found it to be a real page turner, and couldn't put it down...

I finished (binge) reading a book called "The Cucko's Egg" by Cliff Stoll. He would have preferred to rename it to match his paper "To Catch The Wily Hacker", aka "Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage".

It's a true, very detailed story, based o the detailed logs he kept, due to his habits as a trained scientist (astronomer).

If I were (once again) teaching courses in information security, and it was a 101 introduction style class, this would definitely be a book I would recommend they read to start things rolling.  If nothing else, it would at least lay the groundwork for some awareness of what's really going on out in the (cyber) world that most are blissfully ignorant of. It would quickly determine if the reader has the mindset and interest for that world, and where they stand on the spectrum from white hat, grey hat, or black hat in the information security and espionage world.

If interested in such things, I think most readers won't be able to put the book down. It's a "whodunnit" page turner for techie and security geeks.

I have not read a novel that put me into "binge-reading" mode, in I don't know how many years.

It wasn't that very much of it was new to me, in fact it brought back a LOT of memories from the mid-80's. And I kind of knew (just because of my background) roughly who did do it, but the detailed, step by step progression was just addictive.

If anyone is wondering what technology and the (ARPAnet) Internet and computers were like circa mid-80's and the complete apathetic view of information security by people, government, NGO's, etc. This would be the single best introduction I've ever read.

If talking about astrophysics, UNIX, VAX, VMS, software development, ethernet, networking, information security, and other science and technology interests you, you definitely may want to check out this book.

Of course, if you're not into such things. You'll probably be bored out of your gourd.

Cheers for now!


Powered by Plone CMS, the Open Source Content Management System

This site conforms to the following standards: