The FBI used a Microsoft device identifier, dubbed GDID, to link a teenager to a hack attributed to Scattered Spider, raising privacy red flags about Windows' surveillance capabilities.
  • Telorand@reddthat.com
    391·
    2 months ago

    Y’all are probably tired of hearing it, but Linux has come a long way, especially for gaming; spin up a VM and try a few distros out.

  • unskilled5117@feddit.orgEnglish
    11·
    2 months ago

    Why is there never any more detail how the GDID is then used to collect information?

    The complaint says Microsoft had records showing that on May 12, 2025, at 19:21 UTC, the GDID associated with Stokes’ computer “accessed, among other ngrok pages, ‘https://dashboard[.]ngrok.com/signup,’ the ngrok page to set up an ngrok account.”

    How do the records show a GDID in connection to the website?

    • cm0002@lemdro.idBannedOPEnglish
      11·
      2 months ago

      Iirc other articles were specifying he was also using Edge AND had edge cloud sync or w/e enabled

  • altphoto@lemmy.today
    10·
    2 months ago

    That’s why all my devices running that piece of shit stay at work. Far away from my network.

  • fubarx@lemmy.world
    4·
    2 months ago

    Early iPhones all had unique UDIDs that were SDK accessible. It wasn’t long before it was used to connect location data to devices and devices with specific users. Apple’s solution was to yank it away from developers and go with an identifier the users could rescind and reset (the ADID). It still let apps track people, but there was always the risk users would reset it and break the chain of data gathering.

    The real solution is to limit access to the information as-needed. Like for maintenance, or warranty repairs. Everybody else can go pound sand. In the desktop/laptop world, a lot of hardware vendors just blithely let anyone access unique hardware IDs, which leads to the same privacy outcome.

  • FiniteBanjo@programming.devdeleted by creator
    51·
    2 months ago

    TBF nVidia and Intel components supposedly had the same sort of capability for many years now: unique device ids.

    But yeh, fuck windowsm

  • Marija_@programming.dev
    2·
    2 months ago

    Every time something like this comes out I’m reminded how much telemetry exists that most users never think about.

  • refalo@programming.dev
    2·
    2 months ago

    Linux distros have the same kind of device ID mechanism (/etc/machine-id or /var/lib/dbus/machine-id)… the only difference is how applications use it.