Useful for research, and finding security issues. Not much else.

But what data does this 8TB refer to specifically? Is this the source + all the windows builds from a plethora of sources? Did you download 8TB of data from BA and expand it to 32TB or was this a figure provided to you by one of the raided hackers or their associates?

>think the bigger issue is not the final size, but that internal Microsoft material - particularly source code - has escaped into public FTP

Happens regularly, although usually it's MS employees leaving stuff in public FTPs or inside released ISOs, updates, whatever. redmond\ domain is huge and the (accidental or not) leaks never stop.