The Cuckoo's Egg

When I started reading, the fast paced nature of the book and the catch-me-if-you-can-ish spy story of an astronomer turned computer security specialist lead me to believe that it was a work of fiction. The elaborate processes that Stoll took to catch the hacker and the general lack in security in government and company systems seemed to confirm it for me. I especially couldn't believe that Stoll hooked up printers in order to track what the hacker was doing. Little did I realize that it all it actually happened! It is amazing to see how far computers have come in terms of levels of network security and what it takes to catch a hacker. While reading I found myself thinking of the steps that would have prevented the hacker from accessing the systems he did. First is that total overhaul of security. Having weak credentials allowed the hacker into many of the systems that he shouldn't have been able to enter.Second is that having a secure centralized logging location would of prevented the hacker from deleting local logs. He would have had to hack to central location, which would have been more difficult to cover his tracks. Third is the covering and fixing of security loopholes in software. This is a bit harder to track, mostly because system admins generally use outsourced software instead of creating it in house. Looking back just 20 years ago it is amazing how primitive computers seemed. It is amazing to see how far we have come today.