Journey back to the dawn of the internet age with "The Cuckoo's Egg," the true story of how an astronomer-turned-systems administrator accidentally stumbled upon one of history's first documented cases of computer espionage and launched a digital manhunt that would change cybersecurity forever.

This episode unravels the fascinating detective work of Clifford Stoll, who noticed a 75-cent accounting discrepancy that led him down a rabbit hole of intrigue. What began as simple curiosity evolved into a year-long pursuit of a phantom hacker infiltrating sensitive military and research networks across the United States—all in an era before firewalls, security teams, or even the concept of "cybersecurity" existed.

We'll explore the ingenious low-tech and high-tech methods Stoll improvised to track his adversary—from physical wiretaps and printouts to custom-built monitoring tools—all while navigating a bureaucratic maze of skeptical government agencies reluctant to acknowledge the threat. The investigation ultimately spans continents, revealing a complex web of international espionage that nobody was prepared to confront.

Perhaps most valuable are the timeless lessons this pioneering case offers about network vulnerabilities, the challenges of attribution in digital attacks, and the critical importance of cross-border collaboration in cybersecurity. Many of the fundamental principles of digital forensics that professionals use today were born from this single case.

Join us for this riveting exploration of the hunt that helped define an emerging field and forever changed how we think about security in our connected world.