The Cuckoo’s Egg (1989)

Clifford Stoll chronicles his real-life hunt for a network intruder across the fragile hardware topology of 1980s academic and military computing. What begins as a microscopic seventy-five-cent accounting discrepancy soon requires Stoll to rig up custom serial line monitors, jury-rigged printer alarms, and telecom patch cords. The narrative brilliantly demystifies the tactile, messy realities of early mainframe architecture and physical telecommunication switches.