A computer system or method identifies components. A component fingerprint storage is configured to memorize known fingerprints of known components. The term “component” used herein is defined to be a specific version of pre-existing executable software, or a reusable pre-existing self-contained software code building block which is not a complete stand-alone finished product ready for use and which is binary or source code. A fingerprint is generated for a normalized unknown component and fingerprints are generated for all normalized components included in the unknown component. It is determined whether any of the fingerprints generated for the normalized unknown component and for the normalized components included in the unknown component match any of the known fingerprints of known components.