May 2,
2008: Last Summer, Microsoft Corporation
quietly introduced a powerful tool for getting past security on laptops and PCs
running the Windows operations system (which about 90 percent do). The device
is a USB thumb drive called COFEE (Computer Online Forensic Evidence
Extractor). When you capture an enemy computer, you plug in COFEE and then use over
a hundred software to quickly get whatever information is on the machine. COFEE
can quickly reveal passwords, decrypt files, reveal recent Internet activity
and much more. A lot of this can be done without COFEE, but with the Microsoft
device, intelligence collection is a lot faster.
Microsoft
has distributed thousands of COFEE devices to police and military intelligence
personnel in the United States, and some foreign countries. COFEE was developed mainly to assist the
investigation of Internet based crime. But military intelligence operators find
it very useful in uncovering enemy plans. Islamic terrorists love their
laptops, and never go killing without them.
