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miss_code_ • December 8, 2020
Book Review: The Cuckoo's Egg
The Cuckoo's Egg by Cliff Stoll
This story begins with Cliff Stoll, an astronomer, who loses his funding and ends up working as a Systems Manager at Lawrence Berkley Lab. After noticing a very small accounting error, his investigations into why this had occurred led him to discover an unauthorised user on their network. His hunt to find out exactly who this user was, became more and more mysterious, and the enormity of what he was witnessing made for an engrossing and at times frustrating read.
Before reading this book I had briefly read some reviews and the blurb on the back, so I kind of expected it to be sensational, but even as I read it, I was gripped and finding out the true culprits behind the hacking was still a little shocking. I had wanted to believe, just as Stoll had, that it was just a student fooling around. But as the story progressed you could certainly feel the seriousness and intent of the hacking develop.
Even though this book was last published in 1990, and many referenced computers are now totally outdated, it captivated me, and made for and insight into early computer security mindsets...That it was unlikely to happen.....In reality we now know that the importance of what Stoll and others in this story found out, is fast becoming one of the most important areas of government spending today.
All-in-all this was a great read, and a delight for my very first book review! I will definitely recommend it to my friends and family whether they are interested in cyber security or not!
10/10
So, after receiving a 'computer says no' pop up, I had to empty my laptop of all of the old CVs, OLD photos and a million screenshots, (slight exaggeration but you get my point), before I could download Python 3.9.0. It took me pretty much all of last weekend, and actually cleared my mind of the looming 9,347 emails that I had let accumulate for no reason whatsoever....other than laziness. That realisation alone left me ashamed enough to get my act into gear. On the plus side, my iCloud is pretty much empty and now I can save 79p a month on extra storage. Memory freed up, OS updated, blog started.....Python successfully downloaded.....My projects can finally begin!! After watching endless YouTube videos on Python projects for beginners, I found a brilliant vlogger called Tech With Tim, with loads of fun ideas in a Vlog titled '15 Python Projects in Under 15 Minutes'. (Link below) This gave me some inspiration into what kind of projects to try. But in reality....I still have no idea what i'm doing and need to read through my nephews Usborne book; Coding For Beginners Using Python. Specially chosen by me for its 'step-by-step instructions' :) Im feeling pretty accomplished...writing my first ever Python program. (After 3 SyntaxErrors :) ) Learnt Today: Shell Window (IDLE), operators, variables, input functions, strings, conditions, conditionals, integers
After many years of refusing to join Twitter, I have finally taken the plunge. As I finally have a reason to join, other than to fill my ever growing scroll-time. Hopefully soon I will be taking part in a variety of communities. So far I have followed the first recommendations that came up, including NASA, Institute of Coding, The Cyber Security Hub, Coding Garden and many more. If you want to recommend any must-read profiles.....please comment! And whilst starting to browse Hackerone, I noticed a mention of the Discord community, so..... I created a Discord profile, Miss Code#4199, and Wow! just WOW! So many new things opening up and so much more to learn!.....
After entering one of the many YouTube wormholes, I found an episode of Akos Rajtmar's vlog, titled 'Getting an IT Security job in London', with its low quality, and yet brilliant content. (Link below) The Interviewee Adu Ansere, a Cyber Security Recruiter, from Via Resource, had some great advice on what they would be looking for in a good candidate for Penetration Testers... My exact notes were: Crest CRT, OSCP equivalent to Crest CRT, blog, homelab, vulnerability disclosure, Vonhub (VPNhub?) Playing CTFs. Now breaking that down, leads me realise the sheer magnitude of what I have embarked upon, and also the fact that I have no idea what a CTF is. So.....I spend several hours creating a Hacker101 account and started playing CTFs alone...with no idea what to do. Several blogs and many tips later....I have submitted my first couple of flags and I am stuck.... It was fun, a little frustrating, but I see the importance, and know that scheduling time for this is an absolute must! But most of all I now know that before I do any more flag hunting, I want to get more background knowledge....or even A LOT more.... 'Getting an IT Security job in London' https://youtu.be/KKcfir2289U
