The Cuckoo's Egg by Cliff Stoll

Note: I had to write this for class anyways so I figured I'd put it here, as well.

Cliff Stoll's The Cuckoo's Egg is a tale from the Wild West days of the early internet frontier. In it, Cliff, an ex-hippie astrophysicist recycled to the Lawrence Berkley Lab's Keck Observatory, a computer lab, recounts the ten months he spent unraveling what became the first documented case of computer hacking. What started out as a slight accounting discrepancy ended up as a convoluted plunge into proto cyberspace, complete with espionage, government agencies and of course, the good old-fashioned cover-up. Published in 1989, just a few years after the story takes place, The Cuckoo's Egg is part technothriller, part cautionary tale and entirely real.

The book's laid back, conversational style is very easy to read and get into. Although many of the technical terms and acronyms are disused and for younger audiences or the less technologically savvy, completely unknown, the author explains them well without condescension. This may be a product of being written in the time period, as computers were still many years from becoming mainstream at the time. Either way, it is eminently readable for even a general audience. The story is engaging and the author sounds more like an average guy than the stereotypical scientist, particularly with the constant humor that offsets what could have been a very dry account of a long, tedious incident.

That said, the book isn't without problems. The author's far-left viewpoint and the constant reminders of it can become tiresome, especially in spots where the comments seem out of place or irrelevant. True, it's an interesting look at perception, but with an overly heavy-handed focus. The novelty wore off sooner rather than later, especially with a few particularly laughable comments regarding the CIA.

Overall though, while not quite a modern classic, The Cuckoo's Egg is definitely a must-read for anyone with an interest in computers, especially security. It's something of a time capsule and, more importantly, it's more relevant than ever in today's high-tech, computer-driven society.