"CSI Dublin" revealed in Sandyford Industrial Estate

[Picture credit: Kobukson via Gizmodo]

I've just read a really interesting report about Microsoft's CSI-style forensics lab - and it's right here in Dublin. 

Why would a software company need a forensics lab I hear you ask? Well, to beat dodgy counterfeiters of course. They're using advanced microscopy techniques to analyse fake software CDs and trace them back to the counterfeiters. Pretty cool, eh? Here's more detail on it:

At a crime lab in Dublin, Microsoft's Donal Keating uses a custom-built microscope to take 72 high-resolution images of a counterfeit software disc. Just as police use ballistics to match bullets to a suspect's gun, Keating, the company's senior forensics manager, will use the abrasions and grooves on the stacking ring, a raised ridge around the disc's center, to match it to other fakes. He'll then try to trace the counterfeit disc to the factory and the crime syndicate that produced it.

It's always great when Irish scientific and technology stories show up in surprising places - this story was first published in US Magazine Bloomberg Businessweek and then picked up by tech news site Gizmodo.