The author, Clifford Stoll, is quite a character. He wrote "The Cuckoo's Egg", which was (I think) one of the first hacker-thriller novels, which I hold directly responsible for getting me into UNIX as a 12-year old in the 90's. I still have a very old battered copy somewhere.

He's become something of a technology curmudgeon now, and I recall him writing a few articles in the 90's with titles like "Why the Internet is a failure". Interesting guy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford_Stoll

edit: Whoops - the book was "The Cuckoo's Egg", not "The Cuckoo's Nest".