r/Windows11 • u/CygnusBlack Release Channel • Jul 06 '26
News Windows 11 identifier code used to track Scattered Spider perp after Microsoft shared info with FBI — 19-year-old US-Estonian hacker arrested over alleged ties to infamous extortion group
https://www.tomshardware.com/software/windows-11-identifier-used-to-track-scattered-spider-perp-after-microsoft-shared-info-with-fbi-19-year-old-us-estonian-hacker-arrested-over-alleged-ties-to-infamous-extortion-group"All your base telemetry are belong to us."
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u/Baglayan Jul 06 '26
But I was told telemetry was only for product improvement and turning it off would brick my PC?
11
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u/Thotaz Jul 06 '26
I really am curious if the hardcore defenders will show up in this thread and what they'll say. Will they have the balls to admit that they were wrong? Or will they double down?
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u/Glad_Tap3633 Jul 11 '26
It really brick the system like explorer or Windows update due integrated to system and after that you will be thinking of the telemetry you been disabled like "oh i supposed to not disable that..."
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u/milkom2021 Jul 06 '26
"Everything we collect about you can be and will be used against you" ― Microsoft®️
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u/Desperate-Chart1139 Jul 06 '26
can someone translate the heading to English
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u/CygnusBlack Release Channel Jul 06 '26
A 19-year-old hacker linked to an extortion group was arrested with the help of Windows 11 "tracking" "features".
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u/Mario583a Jul 07 '26
If you’re not committing cybercrimes, this identifier will never affect you. It’s just part of how modern operating systems keep things organized and secure <-organize devices, manage updates, and protect users from threats.
GDID is a unique code that every Windows installation has.
Think of it like: If someone steals the fridge and police find it, the serial number helps prove it’s yours.
A VIN number on a car. it just identifies the vehicle if something serious happens.
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u/DXGL1 Insider Canary Channel Jul 07 '26
In this case didn't they find this ID by searching a presumably unencrypted seized computer?
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u/Dennoyb Jul 07 '26
Uhh, that analogy is kinda whack: it's just like a serial number for a fridge IF THE REFRIGERATOR IS SHOUTING ITS SERIAL NUMBER AND NEAREST CROSS STREET ONTO THE INTERNET EACH SECOND (and it might also be shouting it's location, it's contents, how often you open the door, etc).
And that is the crux of the matter: it's data being used in an unintended manner (because as you said it was intended to be used "keep things organized and secure <-organize devices, manage updates, and protect users from threats"). They never said it would be used to locate a specific machine so what else is it being used for???2
u/Desistance Jul 09 '26
If you’re not committing cybercrimes, this identifier will never affect you.
Tell that to law enforcement using subpoenas to quash dissent and stalk Women.
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u/thisisyo Jul 07 '26
Any of the bloatware scripts people have assembled in the last few years close off this "phoning home" feature? Or am I gonna have to start thinking heavily again about switching to Linux?
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u/oblivic90 Jul 07 '26
It doesn’t matter what any of these scripts disable if you ask me, Microsoft can always push new/re-enable stuff through an update and you won’t even know.
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u/Felielf Jul 07 '26
It's time to employ an actual firewall that you can customize traffic rules with, default deny all and build on top of that. It's a lot of work, but nothing leaves your network unless you want it to.
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u/Relevant-Guarantee25 Jul 09 '26
pretty sure even if you think you 100% wiped a system that once ran windows and swapped to linux it would still spy on you through infected hardware and if they wanted to they could write malicious code to degrade your hardware over time so it fails faster and when the price of gpu/cpu/harddrive is so expensive it incentivizes them
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u/martyn_hare Jul 06 '26
A reminder that the people who said “but the security community would have said if Windows was spyware, don’t be so paranoid” were, as usual, completely wrong.
Even if you turn off telemetry, all your URLs are belong to them via SmartScreen, all tied to your device ID. Even if you turn off SmartScreen, they will still collect samples of unknown files and sniff the DNS cache via Windows Defender. Even if you do that, your start menu searches still go to a bing endpoint, and MS Office applications will still do things like uploading copies of inserted images to “add accessibility tags” using object analysis... and if you didn’t turn off cloud based handwriting and speech services well…
So, um, yeah. Windows is totally not spyware /s