Clifford Stoll
| Clifford Stoll | |
|---|---|
| Born | Clifford Paul Stoll June 4, 1950 Buffalo, New York, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater |
SUNY Buffalo (BS) University of Arizona (PhD) |
| Thesis | Polarimetry of Jupiter at large phase angles (1980) |
| Doctoral advisor | Martin Tomasko |
 Booknotes interview with Stoll on The Cuckoo's Egg, December 3, 1989, C-SPAN
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Clifford Paul "Cliff" Stoll (born June 4, 1950) is an American astronomer, author and teacher. He is best known for his investigation in 1986, while working as a systems administrator at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, that led to the capture of hacker Markus Hess, and for Stoll's subsequent book, The Cuckoo's Egg, in which he details the investigation.
Stoll has written a total of three books as well as technology articles in the non-specialist press (e.g., in Scientific American on the Curta mechanical calculator and the slide rule).
Cliff Stoll attended Hutchinson Central Technical High School in Buffalo, New York. He earned a B.S. in Astronomy in 1973 from the University at Buffalo (SUNY).
While studying for his undergraduate degree at SUNY Buffalo, Stoll worked in the university's electronic music laboratory and was mentored by Robert Moog.
He received his PhD from University of Arizona in 1980.
During the 1960s and 1970s, Stoll was assistant chief engineer at WBFO, a public radio station in his hometown of Buffalo, New York.
In 1986, while employed as a systems administrator at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Stoll investigated a tenacious hacker—later identified as KGB recruit Markus Hess—who stole passwords, pirated multiple computer accounts, and attempted to breach US military security. After identifying the intrusion, Stoll set up a honeypot for Hess, eventually tracking him down and passing details to the authorities. It is recognized as one of the first examples of digital forensics. At the time, gaining cooperation from law enforcement was a challenge due to the relatively new nature of the crime. He described the events of his investigation in The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage, and the paper "Stalking the Wily Hacker". Stoll's book was later chronicled in an episode of WGBH's NOVA titled "The KGB, the Computer, and Me", which aired on PBS stations in 1990.
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