Cliff Stoll

Math ain't about numbers! If you think that math is all about numbers, you probably think that Shakespeare is all about words.
—Clifford Stoll, Numberphile - Klein Bottles

Description

Cliff Stoll is an astronomer, author, teacher, and computing legend who is well known by his top quality, low volume Klein Bottles some of which are prominently displayed on the set of The Portal. Cliff's company, Acme Klein Bottles, supplies world-class blown glass Klein Bottles to many. It is purportedly operated from a crawlspace underneath his own home with the aid of some kind of robotic forklift.

Contributions to Computer Forensics

As written in his book "The Cuckoo's Egg", after completing the optics design for the Keck Observatory, the need for further physical design expertise would diminish as construction on the observatory would commence. Cliff found himself facing the unemployment office, astronomers being in not as much demand as the concrete for the structure or ground glass for the now fully envisioned optics. Luckily enough, Cliff found himself recycled into a systems administrator at the computing department of the Lawrence Berkeley Lab. After encountering a $0.75 accounting error in the timesharing computer system, he would nearly single-handedly unravel the case of the "Hanover Hacker", implicating Markus Hess, an alleged KGB agent who would be known as the world's first documented computer hacker. Markus Hess would be convicted in 1990.
The access was achieved by backdooring the LOGIN system utility.

Appearances

Cliff has been known to appear on Numberphile
The Cuckoo's Egg has been re-enacted by Cliff and others involved on the public broadcast television program NOVA, which is available on youtube.
Cliff continues to speak about his historic influence on the field of computer forensics at SANS and many other institutions.

Papers

Polarimetry of Jupiter at Large Phase Angles
Communications of the ACM

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