Cliff Stoll, the mad scientist who invented the art of hunting hackers
Report a link problem
Submission timeline
2007–2026One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.
First comments on top threads
HN comment orderAt work, we give Cliff’s Klein bottles as the quarterly award for engineering excellence. When I ordered the first batch, I called the number on the Acme Klein bottles website to ask whether they could be engraved (the site states the CLIFF won’t engrave the bottles but I wanted clarification if ANYONE would engrave them). It rang and went to voicemail. I started leaving a message with my question when suddenly there was a lot of noise as the phone…
Cliff Stoll was an unwelcome demonstration that not all adults are as clueless as they appear to disaffected, smarter-than-thou teenagers. Cliff showed that a smart adult with an outsized curiosity and more than a bit of persistence, could keep up -- and even marshal resources to reassert the dominance of order and adulthood. This was a good lesson, at the right time, for many people! Also, Cuckoo's Egg is an entertaining story. I read it again a few years ago…
The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.
- Breakout years
- 2
- Total points
- 580
- Total comments
- 252
100+ points or 50+ comments
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
Every submission
| Date | Title as submitted | By | Points | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-12-18 | The Mad Scientist Who Wrote the Book on How to Hunt Hackers | leejo | 2 | 0 |
| 2019-12-18 | Cliff Stoll, the mad scientist who invented the art of hunting hackersFirst breakout · Best thread | wglb | 384 | 149 |
| 2024-03-27 | Cliff Stoll, the mad scientist who wrote the book on how to hunt hackers (2019)Latest 20+ point return | ColinWright | 194 | 103 |