The Cuckoo’s Egg
In the days when the presence of a computer did NOT presume the presence of a network (they used to be freestanding units that could not easily communicate with another system), accounts to use the computer were expensive to maintain and heavily scrutinized by management. When the Accounting staff of Stoll's university employer discovered 75 cents' worth of time used with which no user was associated, they called him and demanded that he locate the "phantom" user. Stoll wasn't even a computing pro - he was an astronomer that used the computer to run programs that pointed telescopes properly. But he was a member of a club that exists today - that person elected to do network administration because he drew the short straw. Stoll tells the ensuing circa 1985 tale of analysis when people worldwide were only just discovering what networks could reveal... and hide. Rather like today.
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- I remember my mother buying me "Accidental Empires" from a bargain bin at the local bookstore as a tween. I must have read it multiple times. Dot product that with "The Cuckoo's Egg" and any technical books and magazines I could get hold of, and you have the formative reading of my career.
- Oh, this predates Internet. It happened as soon as we started connecting computer networks together.
See "The Cuckoo's Egg" by Cliff Stoll
- I do love when things align for me to do the same, but I struggle to enjoy non-fiction so it's uncommon. Narrative non-fiction is particularly enjoyable when I can find it, especially tech, survival, and true crime.
Tech related narrative non-fiction is the pinnacle of reading for me. My top three are Cuckoo's Egg by Cliff Stoll, American King by Nick Bolton, and Countdown to Zero Day by Kim Zetter. OSU Cyber security canon is excellent for finding these but I've read almost everything they list.
If you have any non-fiction suggestions, I'm definitely interested to hear them.
- His book The Cuckoo's Egg is great!
- I watch a lot of videos at 1.5x. Older Cliff Stoll videos don't work at 1.5x. Cliff at 1.0x is already like other people at 1.5x.
I am so stoked to see Cliff at 1.0x in 2026 is still like other people at 1.5x. I am so glad to see Cliff still out there talking. "The Cuckoo's Egg"[0] was formative for me when I was a kid getting into computers. I am so happy that Cliff is out there making formative experiences for new hackers today.
Great talk, Cliff. (The "adjusted for inflation" quip about the budget made my day, too.)
- See "The Cuckoo's Egg" [1] by Cliff Stoll (who sometimes posts here [2]). A few related HN threads: [3] [4] [5]. The book describes tracking down a hacker in 1986 who exploited a vulnerability in early Emacs' movemail utility.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cuckoo%27s_Egg_(book)
[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=CliffStoll
[3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21830277
