Yes, but the government handing them a warrant is not what was meant by “cyber sleuthing”. The person I was responding to was talking about private actors, hackers, digging up the info on their own.
Point accepted.
Though I have been repeatedly amazed at what is possible for a small group of private individuals can accomplish with some very basic internet research.
Never mind the VPN traces or warrants or subpoenas. Put a couple of OCD people on blog monitor duty, cross-correlate the names and keywords with a few simple reference tools, and you too can make a list of 200 individuals who are plausible suspects. One of them is going to be "that guy". Watch long and carefully enough and you will catch him.
That technique depends on "leakage". People talk too much. And they like to brag about their accomplishments. That sort of thing always gets around faster and to more places than anyone guesses. It can be traced back to the source.
It has been done many times before.