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The KGB, The Computer and Me - The Cuckoo’s Egg Story

Australian Phoenix CyberOps · 14.7K views · 2023-09-16 · 56:58

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Overview

A 57-minute account of Clifford Stoll's tracking of a KGB-linked hacker through Lawrence Berkeley Lab computers in 1986, the story of The Cuckoo's Egg. It covers the FBI and Chaos Computer Club involvement.

On Hacker News

Recommended as a documentary telling the early hacking and spy-hunting story, with the original people involved.

Recommended by 3 HN people across 3 months · HN mentions 2024–2025

Topics

Security & hackingPrivacy, surveillance & cybercrimeGeopolitics & foreign policy
Search by tags
clifford stollkgbcomputer espionageincident response1980s hacking

What people said

29athrowaway · 2025-12 · Recommendation

If you like this then you will probably like "The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage", a 1989 book by Clifford Stoll. Also available as audiobook, and a documentary ("The KGB, The computer and Me"). [VIDEO]

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mrlatinos · 2025-06 · Recommendation

His NOVA episode on the same subject is worth a watch as well [VIDEO] I think most younger readers will be familiar through his videos on the Numberphile YouTube channel.

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dosman33 · 2024-02 · Recommendation

Here here. I love Cliff and have my own Acme Klein bottle, a wedding present from my wife. I read the book ages ago of course, but I just discovered the NOVA documentary last week. It's quite amazing to see the original people involved recreating events just a few years after they took place (docu was released in 1990). So... I can't believe Cliff's wife agreed to do a shower scene as part of a recreation for the documentary... Just sayin. [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by Australian Phoenix CyberOps, played through YouTube.

Data and selection notes

HN summaries and labels may contain AI errors. HN dates refer to discussions, not video publication.

HN Library: HackerTube export (2026-10-31) and open-index/hacker-news. Upstream summaries and classifications may contain AI errors.

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