>>113162there are two issues with how people are reporting the story.
1. the FBI already had the hacker's laptops seized. they checked the GDIDs found in the laptops and asked microsoft to confirm them to add evidence to their case, not to locate the guy or whatever.
2. GDID can be an issue beyond just being an internal ID if you're dumb enough to make a Microsoft account instead of a local account because it can link your GDID to other online activities that link you to the Microsoft account. this young hacker was retarded and careless about basic opsec, read
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48921753that said if you are going to be doing ransomware while in a US-extraditable country, you'd at least be using whonix, qubes-whonix or tails, not windows 11 with a microsoft account and microsoft edge, and not snapchat, apple and facebook accounts on your iphone. also it would help not to post photos of yourself on social media with bling and cash bragging about being a hacker, see page 11 (or 15 of the PDF) of
https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndil/media/1450651/dl?inline 