A few weeks ago, Neowin reported on how Microsoft's COFEE (Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor) tool was leaked on to the Internet. In response to this, Microsoft has issued take-down notices to sites hosting their forensic tool, according to CrunchGear.
Despite the tools being freely available to law enforcement agencies in over 187 countries worldwide, the tools have been highly sought by those curious as to what it does. However, Microsoft have issued take down notices to numerous sites (one of which was Cryptome) which hosted the content, requesting that the material is removed promptly.
The take-down notices are being issued because the software, although made up of tools which are easily available, is still classified as proprietary software, and so it cannot be distributed without Microsoft's permission. However, what luck Microsoft will have in stopping it being spread through tracker-less torrent sites remains to be seen.
The tools aren't likely to be much use to the average computer user, but as is often the case, a lot of news coverage created a lot of curiosity. According to company insiders, Microsoft is developing a new version of COFEE which will be released next year that fully supports Windows Vista and Windows 7.
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