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I don't think in this case it'll be messenger IDs (and if it is definitely not chinese) as GCHQ is the UK's equivalent of the NSA.

They're a pretty secretive bunch, when they present in person they don't use real names, and if you go to their headquarters you have to leave all electronics at the door (did a talk there once and had to buy myself an analog watch for the day!)

Why did you buy an analog watch as opposed to just go without?

I wanted to know what time it was for things like how long till my talk starts and how I was doing for timing. :)

They're defo not Chinese. GCHQ is part of UK Intelligence. They also have the $id@publicemail.provider to hide their emails too.

Chinese messenger ID-as-username mostly starts from q(QQ - counterpart FB Messenger) and s(Sina Weibo - counterpart FB/Twitter). Others(a - admob, b - bilibili etc.) are quite rare tbh so I don't think that's the case here.