Book write up

The Cuckoo's Egg

Cliff Stoll’s The Cuckoo’s Egg is a true story about tracking down a hacker in the early days of cybersecurity. What starts as a 75 cent accounting discrepancy turns into an international espionage investigation linked to the KGB.

My impressions

I liked how the book shows the curiosity and persistence behind good security work. It feels like a detective story, but it also reminds you how much of cybersecurity comes from paying attention to small details.

This one landed even more for me because I interned as a network engineer at Lawrence Berkeley Lab in the same server room where Stoll worked. That made the story feel personal in a way most books cannot.