It has been reported that ‘hundreds’ of specialists are digging through the dozens of computer hard drives recovered from Bin Laden’s compound.
I assume he ran Windows? What version?
Did he use project management software or perhaps a DBMS to track and manage his various tasks and projects?
What video surveillance system did he use? I would think the video footage of two blackhawk helicopters landing and a Navy Seal team deploying in your front yard would be neat to watch. I would assume they grabbed the DVR with that footage on it.
Whole disk encryption?
Anti-virus software?
Of course his house did not have voice or broadband service, but perhaps he was tethering a laptop to a satellite phone? Slow as molasses, but secure from surveillance.
A random thought would be if you’re the world’s most wanted bad guy, you would perhaps install some sort of thermite-drive-melter on all your data, and put it in a room where it all goes boom unless you enter the correct code in 15 seconds or so? It does not seem like he had a good BCP plan if all his data was captured.
Does Al Qaeda have an IT staff? A help desk?
I would suppose if an IT guy were to screw something up, the punishment would involve much more than a bad performance review?