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by llm_nerd1 days ago |
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upvoteby mysteria1 days ago|
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From reading the official criminal complaint [1] it looks like Microsoft literally logs all web requests along with the GDID and sends it over as "telemetry". It basically associates the URL, the client's IP, and the GDID together.

Or I suppose it's possible that it only sends the domain and not the full URL, but that's enough for the police to go to the hoster and demand logs containing the full URL for said IP.

1. https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndil/media/1450651/dl?inline

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upvoteby llm_nerd1 days ago|
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Clearly a bunch of defensive Microsoft employees are hitting these threads. The official complaint directly cites Microsoft as the source of these logs. They refer to Microsoft as the source of the records for web requests, app usage, and so on.
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upvoteby nailer1 days ago|
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> Microsoft literally logs all web requests

Nope. That would be unbelievable but also very well known. It was a Windows software licensing matter, see my post above.

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upvoteby nostrademons1 days ago|
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It's not unbelievable at all, and it is well-known. It's been publicized that Microsoft sends every URL you visit in Edge back to Microsoft servers, tied with all the IDs on the device:

https://www.itpro.com/security/privacy/355029/microsoft-edge...

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upvoteby nailer5 hours ago|
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> Microsoft literally logs all web requests

> Microsoft sends every URL you visit in Edge back to Microsoft servers,

Not the same thing.

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upvoteby nostrademons1 hours ago|
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Explain how they differ, in a practical way that's relevant to this discussion?
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upvoteby mysteria1 days ago|
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Are you talking about this post [1]? I don't see anything in the complaint alluding to a VPN license (for all we know he could have used an open source OpenVPN or Wireguard client to connect to the VPN), and the police seem to have gotten everything directly from Microsoft rather than from the VPN provider.

While this is Google and not Microsoft it's worth noting that Chrome literally has a telemetry option which sends URLs to Google [2].

1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48818984

2. https://ibb.co/k61WKSSB

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upvoteby Sophira1 days ago|
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Can you link the specific post you're referring to? It's not "above" at this point in time.
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upvoteby nailer1 days ago|
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Good question. My understand is that it was licensing:

Hackers cloaked IP address -> VPN license -> Windows GDID -> Hacker's name.

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upvoteby llm_nerd1 days ago|
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From the reading of the document, I really don't think that's it. The suspects used phishing to get access to one company's servers, then used those servers to push software to other servers.

It 100% reads that they enlisted Microsoft to correlate telemetry data with some known activities, backtracking from that. Barring specific additional data, this should be extraordinarily concerning. Repeatedly the documents cite "Microsoft's records" for the activity - installing ngrok, accessing certain sites, RDP connections, etc.

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upvoteby baranul1 days ago|
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But it has long been known that Microsoft actively collaborates with and provides user data to legal entities. It is more a matter of the general public not being aware of this, the kind of data collected, and to what extent will users continue to tolerate Microsoft's behavior.
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upvoteby nailer7 hours ago|
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Ngrok license not VPN license but yes, it’s correct as other posters have mentioned
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