Microsoft gives cops COFEE: free computer forensic tools

The folks over at engadget have a post with this tile that reads as follows:

“Cops doing computer forensic work already have a ton of tools to choose from, but Microsoft is doing its part to help out as well — the company just revealed that it’s been distributing a special thumb drive to cops in 15 countries to help them identify and extract information from suspects’ computers. The drive, called COFEE for Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor, is in use by more than 2,000 officers, including some in the States, and Microsoft is giving it away for free, saying that its doing it not for profit but to “help make ensure the Internet stays safe.” COFEE contains more than 150 commands that can be used to collect information, decrypt passwords, and poke through network activity, which helps alleviate the problem of having to remove and transport a suspect’s computer for evidence purposes — officers can just plug in the drive. There’s no word on when Microsoft will start widely distributing the drives, but we’d assume it’ll be soon.”

I can only hope that by “widely distribute” they mean to other law enforcement groups across the globe for if the distribution would go to consumers everywhere, no one would be safe anymore and I will surely crank up my safety levels on my machines. Imagine (William Gibson novel style) Microsoft was to actually distributes these thumb drive via their sales network and everyone could get one, people could just go to someone computer and access all data. It would be much more William Gibson novel-style if they kept it to law enforcement and these thumb drive where getting hot items to be traded on the black markets of this world. ICE-breaker anyone?